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A SHORT ACCOUNT 

OF THE 

LIFE AND WRITINGS 

OF THE LATE 

Rev. WILLIAM LAW, A M. 



A SHORT ACCOUNT 



OF THE 

LIFE AND WRITINGS 

OF THE LATE 

Rev. WILLIAM LAW, A.M. 

AUTHOR OF 

" THE SERIOUS CALL TO A DEVOUT LIFE," 

And of many other not less valuable Works ; 

WITH 

AN APPENDIX, 

Which contains 

SPECIMENS OF THE WRITINGS. 

BY RICHARD TIG HE. 

"He that dwelleth in Love, dwelkth in God/' 

1 John, ch. iv. 

"Love is a disposition of the Mind to take pleasure in the 
<( Happiness of another. 33 

Wolfius. 



PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR ; 

AND SOLD BY J. HATCHARD, 190, PICCADILLY 5 AND 
ELIZABETH BUDD, PALL-MALL. 

1913. 



3X *W 
.U3T3 



Jf. Bretteli, Printer, Rupert Street, 
Haynuirket, London. 



THE LIFE 

OF 

WILLIAM LAW, 



The late Reverend William Law, of King's 
Cliffe, in Northamptonshire, has by some 
been called " a celebrated enthusiast * 
while by others of a different character he 
is held to have been an enlightened and 
well-informed teacher of the way of salva- 
tion from a state of sin, by a Saviour and 
Deliverer, Jesus Christ. He was born in 
the year 1086, second son of Mr. Thomas 
Law, grocer. 

It is probable, but not certain, that he 
received the rudiments of his education at 

* See a note in the Register of Emmanuel College. 
B 



2 



Oakham or Uppingham, in Rutlandshire: 
on the 7th of June, 1705, he became a 
student in Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 

In the year 1708, he commenced 
Bachelor of Arts; in 1711, was elected 
Fellow of the College of which he was a 
member; and in 1712, commenced Master 
of Arts. 

Soon after the accession of his Majesty 
King George I. Mr. Law being called 
upon to take the oaths prescribed by Act 
of Parliament, and to sign the Declara- 
tion, refused to do so ; in consequence of 
which he vacated his fellowship in 1716, 
and from thenceforward was distinguished 
by the name of a non-juring minister. 

That he w as at one time a curate in Lon- 
don, appears from a passage in one of his 
letters not yet printed, or from some other 
good authority ; but whether he acted in 
that capacity while fellow of Emmanuel, or 
soon after he vacated his fellowship, cannot 
now be determined by the Author of these 
sheets ; but it is well known that he soon 
went to reside at Putney with Mr. Gibbon, 



8 



as tutor to his son Edward Gibbon, who 
was father of Edward Gibbon the Younger, 
author of "The History of the Decline and 
" Fall of the Roman Empire. 5 ' 

It seems probable that Mr. Law's politi- 
cal principles, no less than his piety and 
learning, recommended him to Mr. Gibbon, 
who was himself a friend to the family of 
Stuart. 

In a letter to his brother Mr. George 
Law, apparently written soon after the year 
1716, but without date, he thus states his 
reason for refusing to take the oaths : — 
" As to the multitude of swearers, that has 
" no influence upon me ; their reasons are 
" only to be considered, and every one 
" knows that no good ones can be given for 
" people's swearing the direct contrary to 
" what they believe. Would my con- 
" science have permitted me to have done 
" this, I should stick at nothing where my 
" interest was concerned ; for what can be 
W more heinously wicked than heartily to 
" wish the success of a person upon the 
" account of his right, and at the same 
B 2 



4 



" time, in the most solemn manner, in 
" presence of God, and as you hope for 
" mercy, to declare that he has no right at 
" all?" 

By many of his contemporaries he was no 
doubt highly esteemed, as were others of the 
clergy and laity called non-jurors, for the 
sacrifice he had made of his interest to his 
principles: that act was perhaps the first 
step taken towards an entire devotion of 
himself to the service of God, by which de- 
votedness he. was afterwards eminently 
distinguished. 

In the year 1717, Mr. Law engaged in 
controversy, by writing in favour of the au- 
thority of the Christian Ministry in a 
National Church.* Thirty years afterwards, 
he would not have written so warmly on 
that subject, or even thought it interesting, 
although he was to the last convinced of 
the utility of that establishment called the 
Church, and no doubt held that no person 
can be authorised from above to shake or 
pull down the ancient fabric, who is with- 

* See Appendix, No. I. 



5 



out power from on high to set up something 
better in its place. 

In his parish church he joined in the 
public worship of God ; in his parish 
church, and there only, he joined in cele- 
bration of the sacred rite of the Lord's 
Supper ; and in the same ground with those 
who were united to hirn by these acts of re- 
ligion he lies interred. 

Mr. Law well knew that the good 
Shepherd had many sheep who were not of 
one fold outwardly, and that the fold men- # 
tioned in Scripture related to inward in- 
fluence alone. Where two or three meet 
under divine influence, there is Christ vitally 
present in the midst,* 

In the year 1?27, Mr. Law founded an 
Almshouse for the reception and main- 
tenance of two old women, either unmar- 
ried and helpless, or widows ; also a School 
for the instruction and clothing of fourteen 
girls.-f* 

In the year 1755, the lands appropriated 
to the support of his houses produced 

* See Appendix, No. XIII. f lb. No. III. 



6 



yearly fifty-four pounds sterling ; they now 
produce sixty-nine pounds sterling, a rise 
inadequate to the increased value of the 
produce. 

As Mr. Law's first publications were 
well received,* and as he had been in Mr. 
Gibbon's family as tutor and chaplain for 
some years before 1727, he might have had 
the means of founding the widow's house, 
and of educating fourteen girls, without the 
assistance of any friend ; and perhaps he 
did so, although it is by many believed 
that the money so applied was the gift of 
an unknown benefactor. 

By Mr. Thomas Law, now living at 
ClifFe, the grandson of Mr. George Law, 
who was the eldest brother of William, it is 
said, that while Mr. Law was standing at 
the door of a shop in London, a person 
unknown to him asked whether his name 

* After Mr. Law retired to King's ClifFe, be refused to 
take payment for the copies of his publications, and might 
have done so at an earlier period. It is said that his book- 
seller, Mr. Richardson, once prevailed on him to accept one 
hundred guineas. 



7 



was William Law, and whether he was of 
King's Cliffe ; and after having received a 
satisfactory answer, delivered a sealed 
paper, directed to the Reverend William 
Law, which contained a bank-note for one 
thousand pounds ; and it is believed by 
Mr. T. Law, that by those means the small 
almshouse at Cliffe was built and endowed. 

At what time after the year 1732, 
Mr. Law quitted Mr. Gibbon's house at 
Putney, and went to reside in London, the 
Author of this Memoir cannot learn ; but 
he has authority for saying, that some 
time before the year 1740, he was instru- 
mental in making Mrs. Hester Gibbon, his 
pupil's sister, acquainted with Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Hutcheson, widow of Archibald Hut- 
cheson, Esq. of the Middle Temple. 

Mr. Hutcheson, when near his decease, 
recommended to his wife a retired life, and 
told her, that he knew no person whose so- 
ciety would be so likely to prove profitable 
and agreeable to her as that of Mr. Law, of 
whose writings he highly approved. Mrs. 
Hutcheson, whose maiden name was 



8 

Lawrence, had been the wife of Colonel 
Robert Steward ; and when she went to re- 
side in Northamptonshire, was in possession 
of a large income, from the produce of an 
estate which was in her own power, and of 
a life-interest in property settled on her in 
marriage, or devised to her by Mr. Hutche- 
son. , 

These two ladies, Mrs. Hutcheson and 
Mrs. H. Gibbon, much devoted to God, 
and desirous of living entirely to his glory, 
by the exercise of love to their Christian 
brethren, formed the plan of living toge- 
ther in the country, and in retirement from 
that circle of society generally, but ab- 
surdly, called the world, and of taking Mr. 
Law as their chaplain, instructor, and 
almoner. 

We may be sure that their purpose was 
to cultivate those good qualities which 
best prepare the heart for the enjoyment of 
that blessed region " where all worketh 
" and willeth in quiet love." 

In execution of their laudable design, 
they took a house at Thrapston, in North- 



9 



amptonshire ] but that situation not proving 
agreeable to them, the two ladies enabled 
Mr. Law, in the year 1740, or soon after- 
wards, to prepare a roomy house near the 
church at King's Cliffe, and in that part of 
the town called " The Hall- Yard This 
house had belonged to Mr. Thomas Law, 
and was then possessed by William, the 
only property devised to him by his father. 
It had a good garden annexed, and a close 
of pasture ground, in one corner of which 
the small almshouse built by W. Law now 
stands. Part of the land, at this time in 
possession of Mr. Law's kinsman, T. Law, 
was, in small parcels, purchased at different 
times by Mrs. H. Gibbon, and by her de- 
vised to the son of William Law's nephew, 
who made additions to the estate by pur- 
chases after Mrs. Gibbon's death ; and 
dying unmarried, devised the whole to his 
brother Mr. Thomas Law. 

The presence of Mr. Law, no doubt, 
contributed to make the house in " The 
" Hall-Yard" a blessed place of retreat ; 
the whole income of his two female friends 



10 



being devoted to the relief of the poor, and 
all their time to the cultivation of that 
good seed which the adorable Lover of 
Mankind had sown in their hearts. Mrs. 
Hutcheson's annual income was little 
more or less than two thousand pounds, 
and that of Mrs. Gibbon nearly one 
thousand. \ 

As the expenditure within the house was 
in all respects remarkably frugal, very 
great must have been the expenditure 
without ; so great as to make those at Cliffe, 
who remember Mr. Law and his compa- 
nions, say, that their acts of charity were 
boundless. 

The daily distribution of food and 
raiment at their door never ceased, nor the 
granting of occasional relief to the sick and 
needy. It is said that the report of such 
munificence spread to places far from 
ClifFe, and produced applications from 
many w 7 hose wants were less pressing than 
the want of necessary food and raiment, 
and that such were often gratified by cha- 
ritable donations. 



11 



Mr. Edward Gibbon says * that his aunt 
Hester was the original from whence the 
character of Miranda in the Serious Call 
was drawn; but as that lady was very 
young in her father's house when the 
Serious Call was written, it seems likely 
that she was rather an imperfect copy than 
a model, and that the original existed only 
in Air. Law's imagination. 

It is said, and probably with truth, that 
Mr. Law, while employed by Mr. Gibbon 
as tutor to his son, acted voluntarily in 
giving tuition to his daughter; and that his 
pious instructions made an early and lasting 
impression on the mind of his female pupil, 
though they had but little effect on that of 
her brother. Why a considerable part of 
the family estate was devised to her and 
her sister, Mrs. Elliston, mother of Lady 
Eliot, in prejudice of the heir at law, cannot 
now be accounted for in a satisfactory 
manner. After the lapse of half a century, 
Mrs. Hester Gibbon's share reverted into 
the natural channel by her will, and was for 

* See Appendix, No. II. 



12 



a short time enjoyed by Edward Gibbon* 
who long expected it, but not without ap- 
prehensions, that his aunt would devise it 
to some of those friends with whom she 
had spent her life. 

In the year I76I, on the morning of the 
9th of April, Mr, Law departed, in the 
joyful hope of a blessed life in regions of 
peace and love. He bore with patience 
the severe pains of an internal inflam- 
mation, which caused his death. When 
near expiring, he sang an hymn with a 
strong and very clear voice.* 

Either before he sang the hymn, or soon 
after, he is said to have spoken words, by 
which it was evident that he felt the powers 
of the world to come, " as a flame of 
" love which would endure for ever." To 
the Author of this Work it appears almost 
certain that he expired shortly after singing 
the hymn. 

By those persons now living at Cliffe 
who knew Mr. Law, it is reported that he 

* The hymn sung by him will be found at the end of this 
Work. 



13 



was by nature of an active and chearful 
disposition, very warm-hearted, unaffected, 
and affable, but not to appearance so re- 
markable for meekness as some others of 
the most revered members of the Christian 
Church are reported to have been. 

That man has but little pretensions to the 
name of Christian, who does not know that 
to be meek and lowly of heart is the first of 
the good qualities which distinguish those 
who in an eminent degree deserve to bear 
the name of their Master. No writer on 
the spiritual life knew better than Mr. 
Law, that without a victory over wrath and 
pride, it is not possible to enjoy tranquillity 
of mind in this world, much less the happi- 
ness of that holy place of which the meek 
Lamb of God is the life and the light. 

If it be true that Mr. Law did but aim at 
that blessed state of mind, of which he well 
knew the inestimable value, we may be 
sure, that while he acknowledged and 
taught that all the acts of the followers of 
Jesus Christ should be acts of love,* his 

* See Appendix, No. XL 



14 



efforts in strife against sin, with prayer to 
his great Deliverer, never ceased. 

Whether we take his character from re- 
ports, or from his writings, we must revere 
his memory, believing that few have been 
his equals in this age, and not many in any 
age of the Church. The wisdom given to 
him was such as we cannot suppose to re- 
side in any but those who are of a contrite 
and humble spirit, and tremble at their 
Master's word.* 

By the works of which he was the 
author, during the last twenty years of his 
life, it plainly appears, that in love of all 
goodness, no person exceeded him ; in la- 
bours designed to draw all to the service of 
that Master, of whose loving-kindness and 
mercy he spoke copiously in all his writings, 
he was never weary ; to speak good of his 
name, seems to have been his greatest de- 
light, and the first wish of his heart, 
that he and all mankind might enjoy the 
full benefit of that wonderful act of love by 
which the gates of heaven were opened to 

* See Appendix, No-. X. 



15 



all believers. Deliver us from evil, was his 
daily prayer ; a petition suited to the 
mind of contrite sinners in all places, and 
on all occasions, and in his dying hour riot 
forgotten by Mr. Law.* 

He who taught his disciples to pray in 
the closet, and commanded them there to 
intercede for their enemies, could not have 
designed to set limits to their benevolence : 
when therefore we pray for deliverance 
from evil, it is our duty to comprehend the 
whole race of mankind in our humble and 
earnest petitions. 

Does it not follow from hence that God 
wills the salvation of all men from a state of 
sin ? 

Mr. Law, above all things, recom- 
mended to his readers the passive virtues of 
meekness, patience, and resignation, testi- 
fying truly that all the acts of a Christian 
should be directed by the spirit of love, 
however restricted the servant of Christ 
might be in power, wisdom, and know- 
ledge. Such was the perfection at which 

* See the Hymn sung by him, line sixth. 



16 



Mr. Law taught his scholars to aim, and 
such the standard by which he directed 
them to judge their words and actions. 
Mrs. Gibbon might well say, " his life 
" may be seen in his writings."* By the 
writer of this character of Mr. Law, it may 
now be said, 

" Quis digne scripserit ?" 

And it may be feared, that while he endea- 
vours to give a short account of his writings, 
he shall fail of giving satisfaction to those 
who are warm friends of the sentiments 
contained in Mr. Law's works. 

Between the years 1717 and 1737, he 
published several tracts, all in support of 
religion in general, accompanied with the 
earnest recommendation of good morals. 
Of these works the best known is, " The 
" Serious Call to a devout Life/' To this and 
other of Mr. Law's first writings some object 
as not dwelling sufficiently on the means of 
reconciliation to God, repentance and faith. 

* This answer is said to have been given by Mrs. Gibbon 
on being asked to write Mr. Law's life. 



17 

A few years before the publication of the 
Serious Call, he wrote a treatise on Chris- 
tian Perfection, which contains excellent 
doctrine. Some pages of his best style of 
writing may be found in it,* but what that 
work proves might have been explained in 
fewer words: it appears to have been su- 
perseded by the Serious Call in public 
estimation. 

The style of his censure on the play- 
house may be found fault with,-f but to the 
substance of the work no serious Christian 
will object : to such a one it must ever ap- 
pear, that the exhibitions at the theatre 
cannot please any but those whose vain 
minds take pleasure in vanity, 11 Vana 
" vanis \" It is to little purpose to dwell on 
this subject : those who like shows, let 
what will be said, will always find argu- 
ments in defence of their favourite amuse- 
ment, while those who in any degree regu- 
late their lives by the precepts of the gos- 
pel, seeking salvation from a state of sin, 
will avoid scenes where the lust of the 

* See Appendix, No. IV. f Ibid. No, II. 

C 



18 



flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of 
life, find ample gratification. 

The Serious Call to a Devout and Holy 
Life, is by many thought his most valuable 
work. The design is first to show that de- 
votion means devotedness to God, and that 
prayer, public and private, retirement for 
meditation and study,* are but particular 
acts of devotion, and no more than means 
for the cultivation of the love of God and 
man. 

Giving good words with the mouth, 
while the heart is far from God, can answer 
no beneficial purpose : the supplicant 
should at the least have the design to 
please his Lord and Master in all the actions 
of his life ; and if he is not more affected 
by the desire to do the will of God here on 
earth as it is done in heaven, than by the 
desire to be made happy by any kind of 
selfish gratification, he has not yet taken 
the first step on that ladder which reaches 
from earth to heaven. 

* The proverb says, " Qui studet orat.'' Mr. Law is re- 
ported to have said, that " reading is eating." 



19 



" A man/' says Mr. Law, "has no rea- 
" son to look on himself as a disciple of 
" Christ, who has not so much piety as to 
" intend, as the happiest and best thing in 
" the world, to please God in all the actions 
" of his life ; and yet it is for want of this 
" degree of piety that we see such a mix- 
" ture of sin and folly in those who are 
" called the better sort of people/' 

He illustrates his doctrine by many well- 
drawn characters, and fixes the attention of 
his readers by a clear and lively style? far 
superior to that of other writers on devo- 
tion. Many have testified that the reading 
of the Serious Call made such lasting im- 
pressions on their minds, under the divine 
influence, that they never lost sight of the 
objects presented to their view on that oc- 
casion.* 

In a chapter on Resignation, he speaks 
admirably well of the happiness of doing 
the will of our Heavenly Father, and of 
ceasing to do our own natural will, which, 

* A specimen of the Serious Call will be found in Appen^ 
fer, No. V. 



20 



unrestrained, drives us into the commission 
of acts hurtful to our fellow-creatures, 
destructive to ourselves, and displeasing in 
the sight of our Creator. 

By the Christian Perfection, and Serious 
Call, after proving that devotion means de- 
votedness to God, it is the author's design 
to convince his reader, that we cannot be 
wise and happy but by submitting to the 
moral government of our Heavenly Father, 
whose laws are given for our benefit; and 
that such happiness as this evil world can 
afford, without prospect of life in a future 
and better state of existence, is but like the 
dream of an unsound mind. 

With these words he concludes the Se- 
rious Call : — " All worldly attainments, 
" whether of greatness, wisdom, or bra- 
" very, are but empty sounds ; there is 
" nothing wise, or great, or noble, in a hu- 
" man spirit, but rightly to know, and 
" heartily to worship and adore the great 
" God, who is the support and life of all 
ei spirits, whether in heaven or on earth." 

In the year 1737, Mr. Law wrote on the 



21 



sacred rite of the Lord's Supper ; and then 
first began to teach as one who looked on 
religion to be entirely the work of God by 
divine influence on the heart, and on salva- 
tion from a state of sin, as the free gift of 
God to the degenerate race of fallen 
Adam, not to a part of mankind, but to the 
whole race ; a gift of which all might par- 
take who should be willing to do so, by 
turning from their evil ways. 

The power of turning * he truly asserts 
to be in every man from his birth, and 
therefore that he who does not obey the 
voice which calls him to repentance and re- 
conciliation to God, will hereafter assent to 
the justice of his own condemnation. 

The blessing of salvation from sin, with 
all other blessings, he asserts to be through 
Jesus Christ, of whose nature bread and 
wine are symbolical representations ; me- 
morials of the incarnation and death of the 
Saviour and Deliverer; and the means by 
which a present benefit is communicated to 

* See Appendix, No. VI, 



22 



those who have faith to discern the Lord's 
body under the appointed representations. 

If any look on the sacred rite as ordained 
in memorial of a past transaction only, and 
reject the belief of a present and substantial 
benefit, they are in error; and so, with 
great eloquence and power of argument, 
the author of the Demonstration testifies. 

Those persons read Mr. Law's works 
with very little attention, or perhaps in part 
only,* who suppose his principles to be the 
same as those of Socinus. It is said of 
Socinians, that they deny original sin ; that 
they deny the supernatural generation of 
the Saviour, the son of a virgin ; that they 
deny his body to be the visible, and only 
visible Deity ; or that he is Man-God and 
God-Man, the Eternal Word and Power of 
Love clothed with humanity : if they deny 
these venerable truths, their principles 
greatly differ from those of Mr. Law. 

In the Treatise on Regeneration, in an 
Appeal to all who doubt, &c. in the Spirit of 

* See Appendix, No. IX. 



23 



Prayer, in the Way toDivineKnowledge,and 
in the Spirit of Love,* Mr. Law uses all the 
powers of his enlightened mind to establish 
this great fundamental truth, that God is 
love. He writes copiously on the fall of 
the first father of mankind, knowing that 
the necessity for the belief of the greatness 
of the remedy is best proved by showing the 
greatness of the disease- 
He states the consequences of the first 
act of disobedience in such a manner as it 
had never been stated before by any Eng- 
lish writer, borrowing much from the blessed 
Behmen, an enlightened teacher of Ger- 
man} 7 , who wrote many works in the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century .-j* 

In order to show the importance of the 
Christian doctrines of repentance and re- 
conciliation to God (which doctrines, taken 
together, may be specially called the Gos- 
pel *), and not to gratify his readers by 
new views of the historv of creation and of 
the fall of angels and men, he says much 



* See Appendix, Nos. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. 

f Ibid. No. X. (B.) j o toyos HOiroiXKotyWi 



24 

respecting the original perfection of the 
first man, called in Sacred Scripture the 
Son of God, an holy creature, whose soul 
was breathed out of God : and to open the 
case more fully, he endeavours to show his 
readers how it comes to pass that nature, in 
a state of separation from God, is pro- 
ductive of evil, even of all imaginable evil ; 
although nature, blessed by the divine 
influence of heavenly light and love, is pro- 
ductive of all that good which is hidden in 
the Deity, whose triune powers* make the 
Creator manifest in his works. 

* The Author of these sheets prefers the use of the word 
power to the word person, lest any reader should suppose 
person to be applicable only to a visible object. In Sacred 
Scripture Jesus Christ is styled the expressed (or engraven) 
representation of God : "O* uv dnalyoia-poc, TysSofys, j£ %af«xrif 
rys v<no$u,<jius avTS, Qspuv re ra frottrcx, ru pri^ari tjjj ^vvu^bus otvrtt : 
Being the effulgence of his glory, and signature (or engraved 
representation) of his substance (or essence), and upholding 
all things by the word of his power. (Heb. ch. i. ver. 8.) 
Every reader of these Greek words must know that our Eng- 
lish translation is faulty in using person, which word is derived 
from persona, a mask, and that from per sonare, because the 
voice of the actor passed through a conical tube, which was a 
part of the Roman mask. 



25 



After the fall of angels, and subsequent 
fall of man, that which should have reflected 
the glory of its Creator, being broken off 
from the source of life, became in the re- 
bellious creatures wrathful and rapacious. 

So copious are Mr. Law's writings on 
these points, that it may perhaps with 
truth be asserted, that on the subjects 
treated of, he has left nothing unsaid that 
could be beneficial to his readers. He 
exerts all his abilities to show that God is 
love ; that all his acts in creation and re- 
demption are acts of love ; and that wrath, 
numbered in Scripture with other evil fruits 
of corrupt flesh and blood, cannot possibly 
exist in that holy Being whose will is one, and 
that a will of love towards all his offspring, 
indeed towards every thing that hath life. 

That his reader's hope and trust may be 
more and more firmly fixed in his Creator 
and Redeemer, he proves that those sys- 
tems of divinity which represent an out- 
ward atonement, or means of reconciliation, 
as necessary, in order to make God recon- 
cilable to his creatures, in the same manner 



26 



that sacrifices were anciently thought to 
appease the Deity, are erroneous ; proving 
at the same time that the means of reconci- 
liation or atonement had its whole effect 
in man, making him, by change of nature 
and of mind, reconcilable to God. Be 
ye reconciled to God, says an Apostle, 
using the very word from whence atone- 
ment is derived.* 

With respect to an inward means of 
atonement, or reconciliation to God, Mr. 
Law, in the most unequivocal manner, de- 
clares his belief, that through the body and 
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ alone, and 
by means of his sufferings on the cross, 
mankind can be delivered from a state of 
sin and misery ; and that by supernatural 
generation, the suffering Saviour was the 

* The English word at-one-ment is but once used in the 
New Testament, Rom. v. where it should be reconciliation, as 
in 2 Cor. v. ver. 19; rr,v xa.TaXXuyr l vl\a.£o{j.sv, we have received 
the means of reconciliation, i. e. Jesus Christ, Rom. ch. v. : 
xoo-pov y.xrsi*XcK<7(rcov, reconciling the world, 2 Cor. ch. v. : 
tov Koyov tys x.xraKXa,y^s f the word of reconciliation, 2 Cor. 
ch. v. : xxrafooiyijTs ru ©gw, be ye reconciled to God, 2 Cor. 
ch. v. 



only visible image of the invisible Creator 
of heaven and earth. He, with other true 
believers, acknowledged thankfully that 
the Word, by which all things were made, 
took our nature upon him in order to bring 
again unto his creatures, when fallen, that 
righteousness by which sinners can be made 
the children of God. 

It is not the design of this Work to give a 
complete synopsis of all Mr. Law's va- 
luable writings: if the reader will take the 
trouble of turning to the Appendix, he 
will find specimens, taken from his moral 
and spiritual works, sufficient to prove to 
him, that though Mr Law, before all things, 
thought change of heart and mind necessary 
to prepare sinful men, i. e. all men, for 
the kingdom of heaven, and that by assent 
to a creed alone, there could be no recon- 
ciliation to God; yet he was anxious to 
make it appear, that in doctrines he did 
not deviate from those of the Primitive 
Church ; that he believed in one God, 
triune in operation, one in essence, Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit; Father or parental 



28 



power, generating ; Son generated ; Holy 
Spirit proceeding ; these invisible powers 
uniting in the visible body of one Lord 
Jesus Christ, 46 God of God, Light of 
" Light that he believed in what is com- 
monly called original sin, that all children 
come into the world wrathful, or children 
of wrath, and prone to excess in the use of 
every thing which this evil world contains : 
and although he abhorred that sj^stem 
which ascribes wrath to God, he knew that 
internal wrath in a future state will be the 
means of tormenting those who suffer con- 
demnation. 

From the letter of Scripture, some per- 
sons might suppose God to be a consuming 
fire, on full as good authority as some sup- 
pose our Heavenly Father to be wrathful. 
Fire and wrath are indeed his, in a good 
sense; for they are both instrumental in 
bringing about the designs of his love, as 
are his tempests and his frosts. 

Those who love their neighbours, in the 
manner that they love themselves, by sin- 
cerely praying for their welfare, whether 



29 



friends or enemies, will certainly be in- 
clined to believe what Mr. Law says of the 
purification of all human nature, by wishing 
it to be true: his own words* on the sub- 
ject are better than any that can be given 
by another ; to them therefore the reader is 
requested to refer. 

The writer of this Memoir having now 
lightly touched on nearly all the subjects 
treated of largely by Mr. Law, concludes 
by saying, that if what has been written by 
him should induce one person to look 
into, relish, and benefit internally by 
writings which have been found bv him 
a guide to rest, his labour will not be in 
vain, nor, he trusts, unrewarded in a better 
world by that good Master of whose vine- 
yard the fruit is love. 



Mr. Law was in stature rather over than 
under the middle size ; not corpulent, but 

* See Appendix, No. XIV. (A.) 



so 



stout-made, with broad shoulders ; his 
visage was round, his eyes grey ; his fea- 
tures well proportioned, and not large ; his 
complexion ruddy, and his countenance 
open and agreeable. He was naturally 
more inclined to be merry than sad. In his 
habits he was very regular and temperate ; 
he rose early, breakfasted in his bed-room 
alone on one cup of chocolate; joined his 
family in prayer at nine o'clock, and again, 
soon after noon, at dinner. 

When the daily provision for the poor 
was not made punctually at the usual 
hour, he expressed his displeasure sharply, 
but seldom on any other occasion. He 
did not join Mrs. Gibbon and Mrs. Hut- 
cheson at the tea-table, but sometimes eat 
a few raisins standing while they sat* 

At an early supper, after an hour's walk 
in his field or elsewhere, he eat something, 
and drank one or two glasses of wine ; then 
joined in prayer with the ladies and their 
servants, attended to the reading of some 
portion of Scripture, and at nine o'clock 
retired. 



31 



When the children of his nephew came 
to his house, as they often did, he was 
much pleased to see them, and to take 
them on his knee. The youngest of them 
now (anno ]813) lives at Kings Ciiffe, in 
the house which did belong to Mr. Law. 

After speaking of Mr. Law's habits of 
temperance and regularity, the kind person 
of King's Ciiffe, from whom the writer of 
these sheets received information respecting 
Mr. Law's way of life, says in a letter: " He 
V was fond of music, and on the day of the 
" annual audit of the accounts, stated by 
" those who managed the funds appro- 
" priated to the support of the charitable 
" institutions atCliffe, entertained the trus- 
* 6 tees with a concert, on which occasion 
" Mrs. Gibbon performed on the organ. 

" He chose to eat his food from a 
" wooden platter, not from an idea of the 
" unnecessary luxury of a plate, but be- 
" cause it appeared to him that a plate 
ie spoiled the knives/' 

He wore shirts intended for the poor as 
soon as made, after which they were 
washed for the first time, and distributed. 



52 

A new edition of an old translation of 
Behmen's works was printed at Mrs, Hut- 
cheson's expense, and in part under Mr. 
Law's superintendance. The figures, said to 
have been left by Mr. Law, were not de- 
signed by him, but by a German, whose 
name was Andrew Freeher. Of Andrew 
Freeher there are several volumes of writ- 
ings : it does not appear that any of them 
have been printed* The writer of these 
lines has reason to believe that they are in 
the British Museum, but that they are of 
little value. What is good in them may be 
found in the works of his master Behmen. 

Mrs. Hutcheson died in January, 1781, 
aged 91. 

Mrs. Gibbon died in June, 1790, aged 86. 

The remains of Mr. Law were placed in 
a tomb built by Mrs. Gibbon. 

When Mrs. Hutcheson died, her remains 
were placed, by her particular desire, at the 
feet of Mr. Law, in a new tomb. 

Mrs. Gibbon was interred with Mr. Law. 



S3 



THE ANGELS' HYMN, 

SAID TO HAVE BEEN SUNG BY THE LATE REV. W. LAW, WHEN 
ON HIS DEATH-BED. 



Thus Angels sang, and thus sing we, 
To God on high all glory be ! 
Let him on earth his peace bestow, 
And unto men his favour show. 

Welcome sweet words, sweet words indeed! 
In darkness light through them is spied ; 
Whate'er is needless, these we need : 
Lord, let these words with us abide. 

This day sets forth thy praises, Lord; 
Our grateful hearts to thee shall sing, 
Our thankful lips now shall record 
Thine ancient love, Eternal King. 

And let the Church with one accord 
Resound Amen, and praise the Lord. 

Hallelujah ! Hallelujah ! 

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! 



i) 



35 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. 

On the Bangor ian Controversy. From 
(c Smollett's History of England" 

In the year 1717, the proceedings in the Convoca- 
tion turned chiefly upon two performances of Dr. 
Hoadley, Bishop of Bangor. One was entitled, 
ce A Preservative against the Principles and 
<e Practices of the Non-jurors the other was a 
sermon preached before the king, under the title of 
" The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ." An 
Answer to this discourse was published by Dr. 
Snape, Master of Eton College, and the Convoca- 
tion appointed a committee to examine the Bishop's 
two performances. They drew up a representa- 
tion, in which the Preservative and the Sermon 
were censured, as tending to subvert all govern- 
ment and discipline in the Church of Christ ; to 
reduce his kingdom to a state of anarchy and con- 
fusion ; to impugn and impeach the royal supre- 
macy in causes ecclesiastical, and the authority of 
the legislature to enforce obedience in matters of 
religion by civil sanctions. The government 
d % 



36 



thought proper to put a stop to these proceedings 
by a prorogation, which however inflamed the con- 
troversy. A great number of pens were drawn 
against the Bishop. But his chief antagonists 
were Dr. Snape and Dr. Sherlock, whom the king 
removed from the office of his chaplains, and the 
Convocation has not been permitted to sit and do 
business since that period. 



No. II. 

Testimony concerning Mr. Law by Edward 
Gibbon, Esq. 

A life of devotion and celibacy was the choice of 
my aunt, Mrs. Hester Gibbon, who, at the age of 
eighty-five, still resides in a hermitage at Cliffe, in 
Northamptonshire, having losg survived her spi- 
ritual guide and faithful companion, Mr. Wlliam 
Law, who at an advanced age, about the year 
1761, died in her house. In our family he had 
left the reputation of a worthy and pious man, 
who believed all that he professed, and practised 
all that he enjoined. The character of a non-juror, 
which he maintained to the last, is a sufficient 
evidence of his principles in Church and State, 
and the sacrifice of interest to conscience will be 
always respectable, His theological writings, 
which our domestic connection has tempted me to 
peruse, preserve an imperfect sort of Life, and I 



37 



can pronounce with more confidence and know- 
ledge on the merits of the Author. His last com- 
positions * *************** 

* * *, and his discourse on the absolute unlaw- 
fulness of stage entertainments ******* 

* * * * g u | these sallies ****** must 
not extinguish the praise which is due to Mr. Wra. 
Law as a wit and a scholar. His arguments are 
specious and acute ; — his manner is lively ; — his style 
forcible and clear ; — had not his vigorous mind been 
clouded by enthusiasm,, he might be ranked with 
the most agreeable and ingenious writers of the 
times. While the Bangorian controversy was a 
fashionable theme., he entered the lists on the sub- 
ject of Christ's kingdom,, and the authority of the 
priesthood. Against the Plain Account of the Sa- 
crament of the Lord's Supper, he resumed the com- 
bat with Bishop Hoadley, the object of Whig ido- 
latry and Tory abhorrence, and at every weapon 
of attack and defence, the non-juror, on the ground 
which is common to both, approves himself at 
least equal to the prelate. On the appearance of 
the Fable of the Bees, he drew his pen against 
the licentious doctrine, that private vices are 
public benefits, and morality as well as religion 
must join in his applause. Mr. Law's master- 
work, the Serious Call, is still read as a popular 
and powerful book of devotion. His precepts are 
rigid, but they are founded on the gospel. His 
satire is sharp, but is drawn from the knowledge 
of human life ; and many of his portraits are not 
unworthy the pen of La Bruyere. If he finds 
a spark of piety in his reader's mind, he will soon 
kindle it to a flame; and a philosopher must 



ss 



allow that lie exposes, with equal severity and 
truth, the strange contradiction between the faith 
and practice of the Christian world. Under the 
names of Flavia and Miranda, he admirably 
describes my two aunts, the heathen and the 
Christian sister. 



No. III. 

From a 'printed Account of the two charitable 
Foundations at King's Cliff e, in the County of 
Northampton. Dated, 1755. 

In the year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- 
dred and forty-live, Mrs. Hutcheson set up a 
school in the town of King's Cliflfe for the educa- 
tion and full clothing of eighteen poor boys of the 
town of King's ClifFe, with a salary for a master 
well qualified to teach them reading and writing, 
and all the useful parts of arithmetic. 

Mrs. Hutcheson afterwards bought a school- 
house for the master, built a school, and four little 
tenements adjoining to it, for the separate habita- 
tion of four ancient and poor widows, chosen 
out of the town of King's Cliffe, with a weekly 
allowance. 

For the perpetual maintenance of these chari- 
ties, the following estates have, by Mrs. Hutche- 
son's order and appointment, been conveyed, sur- 
rendered, and sold, for ever in trust, to G. Lynn 
of Southwick, W. Pain King of Fineshade, 



• 



39 



Esqrs. ; to the Rev. C. Bates of Easton; to 
the Rev. W. Piemont, Rector of King's Cliffe ; 
to T. Jackson of Duddington, Gent. ; to G. Law 
of Morehay, Gent. : 

£. s.d. 

One moiety of a certain number of 

Closes in the county of Lincoln, let for 54 
Land at Aslacton, in the county of Not- 



tingham 53 

Two Closes at King's Cliffe 18 10 

Dealy's Closes 7 10 

Buxton Close 7 00 

Close near the school-house 8 



£.148 

Donatus O'Brien of Blatherwick, Esqr. was, at 
the desire of Mrs. Hutcheson, added to the six 
trustees before-mentioned. 

The school founded for the education and full 
clothing of fourteen poor girls of the town of 
King's Cliffe, was set up by Mr. Wm. Law, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
twenty-seven, with a salary for a mistress well 
qualified to instruct them in reading, knitting, and 
every useful kind of needlework. 

He hath since built a school-house and school, 
and also two little tenements adjoining to the 
schools, to be inhabited separately by two poor an- 
cient unmarried women or widows, of the town of 
King's Cliffe, with a weekly allowance hereafter 
mentioned. 

For the perpetual support of these charities, he, 
the said W. Law, hath conveyed for ever in trust, 



40- 



to G. Lynn of Southwick ; to D. O'Brien of 
Blatherwick ; to W. Pain King of Fineshade, 
Esqrs. ; and to the Rev. C. Bates of Easton ; to 
the Rev. W. Piemont, Rector of King's Cliffe; to 
T. Jackson of Duddington, Gent. ; and to 
George Law of Morehay, Gent. 

1. The aforesaid school and school-house, 
and the two little adjoining tenements. 

2. One moiety of a certain number of closes 
at Northope, in Lincolnshire, let for fifty-four 
pounds per annum. 

The gross annual income arising at present, 
Anno 1813, from Mr. Law's portion of the estates, 
amounts to sixty-nine pounds. 

The gross annual income arising at present from 
Mrs. Hutcheson's portion of the estates, amounts 
to three hundred and eight pounds, eighteen shil- 
lings, and sixpence. 

£. s. d. 

Mr. Law's ..... 69 
Mrs. Hutcheson's . 308 IS 6 



£.377 18 6 



The rise of rent, from fifty-four to sixty-nine 
pounds, at the end of fifty years, must appear 
small, when the increased price of the products of 
all lands is taken into consideration. 



41 



No. IV. (A.) 

Exhortations to Devotion. From " A practical 
Treatise on Christian Perfection," 

Whoever hath read the foregoing chapters with 
attention, is, I hope, sufficiently instructed in the 
knowledge of Christian perfection. He hath 
seen that it requireth us to devote ourselves wholly 
unto God, to make the ends and designs of reli- 
gion, the ends and designs of all our actions ; that 
it called us to be born again of God, to live by the 
light of his Holy Spirit, — to renounce the world 
and all worldly tempers, — to practise a constant, 
universal self-denial, — to make daily war with the 
corruption and disorder of our nature, — to prepare 
ourselves for divine grace by a purity and holiness 
of conversation, — to avoid all pleasures and cares 
which grieve the Holy Spirit, and separate him 
from us,— to live in a daily, constant state of 
prayer and devotion ; and, as the crown of ail, to 
imitate the life and spirit of the Holy Jesus. 

It now only remains that I exhort the reader to 
labour after this Christian perfection. Was I to 
exhort any one to the study of poetry or eloquence, 
to labour to be rich and great, or to spend his time 
in mathematics or other learning, I could only 
produce such reasons as are fit to delude the va- 
nity of men, who are ready to be taken with any 



42 



appearance of excellence. For,, if the same person 
was to ask me what it signifies to be a poet, or elo- 
quent, what advantage it would be to him to be a 
great mathematician or a great statesman, I must 
be forced to answer, that these things would sig- 
nify just as much to him as they now signify to 
those poets, orators, mathematicians, and states- 
men, whose bodies have been a long while lost 
among the common dust. For, if a man will be 
so thoughtful and inquisitive as to put the ques- 
tion to every human enjoyment, and ask what real 
good it would bring along with it, he would soon 
find that every success amongst the things of this 
life leaves us just in the same state of want and 
emptiness in which it found us. If a man asks, 
why he should labour to be the first mathemati- 
cian, orator, or statesman ? the answer is easily 
given, because of the fame and honour of such a 
distinction; but if he was to ask again, why he 
should thirst after fame and honour, or what good 
they would do him ? he must stay long enough for 
an answer. For when we are at the top of all hu- 
man attainments, we are still at the bottom of all 
human misery, and have made no farther advance- 
ment towards true happiness, than those whom we 
see in the want of all these excellencies. Whether 
a man die before he has writ poems, compiled his- 
tories, or raised an estate, signifies no more than 
whether he died an hundred or a thousand years 
ago. 

On the contrary, when any one is exhorted to 
labour after Christian perfection, if he then asks, 
what good it will do him ? the answer is ready, 



43 



that it would do him a good which eternity only 
can measure; — that it will deliver him from a 
state of vanity and misery,— that it will raise him 
from the poor enjoyments of an animal life, — that 
it will give him a glorious body, carry him, in spite 
of death and the grave, to live with God, be glo- 
rious among angels and heavenly beings, and be 
full of an infinite happiness to all eternity. If 
therefore we could but make men so reasonable, as 
to make the shortest inquiry into the nature of 
things, we should have no occasion to exhort them 
to strive after Christian perfection. 



No. IV. (B.) 

The last hour will soon be with you, when you 
will have nothing to look for, but your reward in 
another life, when you will stand with nothing but 
eternity before you, and must begin to be some- 
thing that will be your state for ever. I can no 
more reach heaven with my hands, than I can 
describe the sentiments that you will then have ; 
you will then feel motions of heart that you never 
felt before ; all your thoughts and reflections will 
pierce your soul in a manner that you never be- 
fore experienced ; and you will feel the immorta- 
lity of your nature, by the depth and piercing 
vigour of your thoughts : you will then know 
what it is to die, — you will then know that you 
never knew it before., that you never thought wor- 



44 

thily of it, but that dying thoughts are as new 
and amazing as that state which follows them. 

Let me therefore exhort you to come prepared to 
this time of trial, — to look out for comfort whilst 
the day is before you, — to treasure up such a fund 
of good and pious works, as may make you able to 
bear that state which cannot be borne without 
them . Could I anyway make you apprehend, how 
dying men feel the want of a pious life, — how they 
lament time lost, health and strength squandered 
away in folly, — how they look at eternity, and 
what they think of the rewards of another life, you 
would soon find yourself one of those who desire 
to live in the highest state of piety and perfection, 
that by this means you may grow old in peace, and 
die in the full hopes of eternal glory. 



No. V. 

Exhortations to Devotion, and acquiescence tinder 
all Dispensations of Providence. From " A 
<c Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life." 

There is nothing wise, or holy, or just, but the 
great will of God. This is as strictly true in the 
most rigid sense, as to say, that nothing is infinite 
and eternal but God. 

No beings, therefore, whether in heaven or on 
earth, can be wise, or holy., or just," but so far as 
they conform to this will of God. It is confor- 



45 



mity to this will, that gives virtue and perfection 
to the highest services of angels in heaven ; and it 
is conformity to the same will,, that makes the or- 
dinary actions of men on earth become an ac- 
ceptable service unto God. 

The whole nature of virtue consists in con* 
forming to, and the whole nature of vice in de- 
clining from, the will of God. All God's creatures 
are created to fulfil his will ; the sun and moon 
obey his will, by the necessity of their nature ; 
angels conform to his will by the perfection of their 
nature : if therefore you would sho w yourself not 
to be a rebel and apostate from the order of the 
creation, you must act like beings both above and 
below you ; it must be the great desire of your 
soul, that God's will may be done by you on earth 
as it is done in heaven. It must be the settled 
purpose and intention of your heart, to will 
nothing, design nothing, do nothing, but so far as 
you have reason to believe that it is the will of 
God that you should so desire, design, and do. 

'Tis as just and necessary to live in this state of 
heart, to think thus of God and yourself, as to 
think that you J^ave any dependence upon him ; 
and it is as great a rebellion against God, to think 
that your will may ever differ from his, as to 
think that you have not received the power of 
willing for him. You are therefore to consider 
yourself as a being that has no other business in 
the world, but to be that which God requires you 
to be ; to have no tempers, no rules of your own ; to 
seek no self-designs or self-ends, but to fill some 
place, and act some part, in strict conformity and 
thankful resignation to the divine pleasure. 



* 

To think that you are jour own, or at your own 
disposal,, is as absurd as to think that you created 
and can preserve yourself. It is as plain and ne- 
cessary a first principle, to believe you are thus 
God's, that you thus belong to him, and are to 
act and suffer all in a thankful resignation to his 
pleasure, as to believe that in him you live and 
move and have your being. 

Resignation to the divine will signifies a chear- 
ful approbation and thankful acceptance of every 
thing that comes from God. It is not enough pa- 
tiently to submit, but we must thankfully receive 
and fully approve of every thing that, by the order 
of God's providence, happens to us. 

For there is no reason why we should be patient, 
but what is as good and strong a reason why we 
should be thankful. If we were under the hands 
of a wise and good physician, that could not 
mistake, or do any thing to us but what certainly 
tended to our benefit, it would not be enough to 
be patient, and abstain from murmurings against 
such a physician ; but it would be as great a 
breach of duty and gratitude to him, not to be 
pleased and thankful for what he did, as it would 
be to murmur at him. 



47 



No. VI. 

On Universal Redemption. From cc A Demon* 
" stration of the Errors of a Book called, 
ce A plain Account of the Sacrament of the 
ee Lord's Supper." 

It is the fundamental doctrine, or rather the 
known foundation of all revealed religion, and the 
known foundation of all natural piety and good- 
ness, that Jesus Christ is the second Adam ; that 
he is a common head, or parent, or person, to all 
mankind, in the same manner as Adam is the 
common head, or parent, or person, to all man- 
kind. 

That a real birth, life, nature, and true man, is 
in the same truth and reality derived to us from this 
our second Adam, as a real birth and life and nature 
is derived to us from our first Adam ; and that 
as without any figure, or metaphor of speech, we 
are all said to be born of Adam, and descended 
from him : so we are all in the same dependence 
upon our second Adam, really, and not figura- 
tively, born of him, and have our descent from 
him, spirit of his spirit, life of his life, in the 
same truth and reality as every man has the 
nature of the first Adam. 

And herein is seen the infinite depth of divine 
love and goodness to mankind, who, though they 
were by the condition of their creation to be de- 
rived from one head or parent, and to take his 
state of perfection or imperfection, yet were, by the 



\ 



48 



goodness and care of God for them, provided 
from the very beginning with a second parent,, or 
common head, who, after the fall of the first, and 
the fallen state that he had brought upon his pos- 
terity, should be a common restorer, and put it in 
every man's power to have the same choice of life 
and death as the first man had ; that so they who 
were lost before they were born, and were made 
inheritors of a miserable nature without their 
choice, might have a divine life restored to them 
in a second parent, which should not be in the 
power of any one to lose for them, but should de- 
pend entirely upon their own will and desire of it, 
upon their own faith and hope and hungering 
after it. 

This eternal and immutable truth, worthy of 
being written in capital letters of gold, is the 
foundation of all revealed and natural religion, and 
a standing monument of God's universal good- 
ness and love to all mankind, and such as is 
sufficient to make all men rejoice and give praise 
to God. 



We all stand as near to the reasons and motives 
for receiving the gospel as they did to whom it was 
first preached. No one then did or could receive 
Jesus when he was on earth, but for the same rea- 
sons, that the sick, the lame, and the blind, sought 
to him to be cured ; namely, because they felt 
their infirmities, and wanted to be relieved from 
them. But if this state of heart, or their sensibi- 
lity of their condition, of what they were, and what 
they wanted, was then the only possible reason 
they could have for receiving Christ; then it 



49 



follows, that every man, of every age,, has all the 
reasons for receiving or not receiving the gospel 
within himself, and stands just as near to, and just 
as far from the evidence of it, as those did who 
first heard it. 

If you know of no burden or weight of sin, nor 
want any assistance to overcome it, the gospel has 
no evidence for you ; and though you had stood 
by our Saviour, you had been never the nearer to 
it. But if you know your state, as the sick, the 
lame,, and the blind, knew their state ; if you groan 
under the power of sin, and are looking towards 
God for some assistance to overcome it, then you 
have all the reasons for receiving the gospel written 
in your heart, and you stand as near all its proper 
evidence, whether you were born in the last age, 
or seventeen hundred years ago. 

Now if you don't know and feel, that the gospel 
has this foundation in you, that you have that fall 
and redemption in you that it teaches, then all ex- 
ternal evidence of it can be of no use to you, be- 
cause you are not the person that wants such a 
salvation. 

But if you know that these two things are 
written in the frame of your nature, that evil and 
good, or the fall and the redemption, are at strife 
within you, and that you want some divine as- 
sistance to help you to overcome the evil that is in 
you, then the gospel needs no external evidence, 
because your heart is a witness of all the truth of 
it. For you are then only doing that in a lower 
degree, which the gospel teaches and enables you to 
do in a more perfect and prevailing manner. 

£ 



50 



No. VII. 

On Faith, as the Means of Salvation from a 
State of Sin From " The Grounds and 
ec Reasons of Christian Regeneration.'' 

True faith is a coming to Jesus Christ to be 
saved and delivered from a sinful nature,, as the 
Canaanitish woman came to him and would not be 
denied. It is a faith of love, a faith of hunger, 
a faith of thirst, a faith of certainty an 1 firm as- 
surance, that in love and longing, and hunger and 
thirst, and full assurance, will lay hold on Christ 
as its loving, assured, certain, and infallible Sa- 
viour and atonement. 

It is this faith that breaks off all the bars and 
chains of death and hell in the soul : it is to this 
faith that Christ always says, what he said in the 
gospel, Thy faith hath saved thee ; thy sins are for- 
given thee ; go in peace. Nothing can be de- 
nied to this faith, all things are possible to it ; and 
he that thus seeks Christ, must find him to be his 
salvation. 

On the other hand, all things will be dull and 
heavy, difficult and impossible to us ; we shall toil 
all the night and take nothing, — we shall be tired 
with resisting temptations, grow old and stiff in our 
sins and infirmities, if we do not, with a strong, 
full, loving, and joyful assurance, seek and come 



51 



to Christ for every kind and degree of strength, 
salvation, and redemption. We must come unto 
Christ as the blind, the sick, and the leprous came 
to him, expecting all from him, and nothing from 
themselves. When we have this faith, then it is 
that Christ can do all his mighty works in us. 

From the foregoing account, any one may be 
supposed already to see the nature and necessity of 
regeneration or the new birth. It is as necessary 
as our salvation. By our fall our soul has lost the 
birth of the Son of God in it ; by this loss it is 
become a dark, wrathful, self-tormenting root of 
fire, shut up in the four hellish elements of selfish- 
ness, envy, pride, and wrath. Considered as a fallen 
soul, it cannot stir one step, or exert one motion, 
but in and according to these elements ; therefore 
it is as necessary to have this nature itself changed, 
and to be born again from above, as it is neces- 
sary to be delivered from hell and eternal death.* 

What is it that any thoughtful serious man 
could wish for, but to have a new heart, and a 
new spirit, free from the hellish self-tormenting 
elements of selfishness, envy, pride, and wrath ? 
his own experience has shown him, that nothing 
human can do this for him, can take away the 
root of evil that is in him. 

Therefore, to have the Son of God from heaven 
to redeem him by a birth of his own divine nature in 
him, must be a way of salvation, highly suited to his 
own sense, wants, and experience ; because he 
finds that his evil lies deep in the very essence and 

* Our salvation (sc. from a state of sin), says J. B. is in 
the life of Jesus Christ in us. 

e2 



52 



forms of his nature,, and therefore can only be 
removed by the arising of a new birth or life in 
the first essences of it. 



Some people have an idea or notion of the 
Christian religion, as if God was thereby declared 
so full of wrath against fallen man, that nothing 
but the blood of his only begotten Son could 
satisfy his vengeance. 

Nay,, some have gone such lengths of wicked- 
ness as to assert, that God had by immutable de- 
crees reprobated and rejected a great part of the 
race of Adam to an inevitable damnation, to show 
forth and magnify the glory of his justice. 

But these are miserable mistakers of the divine 
nature, and miserable reproachers of his great 
love and goodness in the Christian dispensation. 

For God is love, yea all love, and so all love, 
that nothing but love can come from him ; and the 
Christian religion is nothing else but an open, 
full manifestation of his universal love towards all 
mankind. As the light of the sun has only one 
common nature towards all objects that can re- 
ceive it, so God has only one common nature of 
goodness towards all created nature, breaking 
forth in infinite flames of love upon every part of 
the cr ation, and calling every thing to the 
highest happiness it is capable of. 



The whole nature of the Christian religion 
stands upon these two great pillars ; namely, the 
greatness of our fall, and the greatness of our re- 



53 



demption. In the full and true knowledge of 
these truths, lie all the reasons of a deep humility, 
penitence, and self-denial ; and also all the mo- 
tives and incitements to a most hearty, sincere, and 
total conversion to God, and every one is neces- 
sarily more or less of a true penitent, and more or 
less truly converted to God, according as he is 
more or less deeply and inwardly sensible of these 
truths. 



No. VIII. (A,) 

On the Original of Man's Soul. From ec An 
ec Appeal to all that doubt or disbelieve the 
<* Truths of the Gospel/' 

Herein also appears the high dignity and never- 
ceasing perpetuity of our nature. The essences of 
our souls can never cease to be, because they 
never began to be ; and nothing can live eter- 
nally, but that which hath lived from all eternity. 
The essences of our souls were a breath in God 
before they became a living soul ; they lived in 
God before they lived in the created soul, and 
therefore the soul is a partaker of the eternity of 
God, and can never cease to be. Here, O man, 
behold the great original and the high state of thy 
birth. Here let all that is within thee praise thy 
God, who has brought thee into so high a state of 
being. 

Thou shouldest only will that which God 
willeth, only love that which he loveth, co-operate 
and unite with him in the whole form of thy life, 



54 



because ail that thou art, all that thou hast, is 
only a spark of his own life and spirit derived into 
thee. If thou desirest, inclinest, and turnest to 
God, as the flowers of the field desire and turn to- 
wards the sun, all the blessings of the Deity will 
spring up in thee ; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 
will make their abode with thee. If thou turnest 
in towards thyself, to live to thyself, to be happy 
in the workings of an own will, to be rich in the 
sharpness and acuteoess of thy own reason, thou 
choosest to be a weed, and canst only have such a 
life, spirit, and blessing from God, as a thistle has 
from the sun. 



They who suppose the wrath and anger of 
God upon fallen man to be a state of mind in 
God himself, to be a political kind of just indigna- 
tion, a point of honourable resentment, which the 
Sovereign Deity, as governor of the world, ought 
not to recede from, but must have a sufficient sa- 
tisfaction done to his offended authority, before he 
can, consistently with his sovereign honour, receive 
the sinner into his favour, hold the doctrine of the 
necessity of Christ's atoning life and death in a 
mistaken sense. That many good souls may hold 
this doctrine in this simplicity of belief, without 
any more hurt to themselves, than others have 
held the reality of Christ's flesh and blood in the 
sacrament, under the notion of the transubstan- 
tiation of the bread and wine, I make no man- 
ner of doubt. But when books are written to im- 
pose and require this belief of others, as the only 
saving faith in the life and death of Christ, it is 
then an error that ceases to be innocent ; for 



55 



neither reason nor scripture will allow us to bring 
wrath into God himself, as a temper of his mind, 
who is only infinite, unalterable, overflowing love, 
as unchangeable in love, as he is in power and 
goodness. 



No. VIII. (B.) 

On Reconciliation to God by the Life of Jesus 
Christ. From ee An Appeal to all that doubt 
" or disbelieve the Truths of the Gospel." 

Some people have much puzzled themselves and 
others with this question, How is it consistent with 
the goodness and equity of God to permit or ac- 
cept the sufferings of an innocent person as a satis- 
faction for the guilt and punishment of criminal 
offenders ? But this question can only be put by 
those who have not yet known the most funda- 
mental doctrine of the gospel salvation ; for, ac- 
cording to the gospel, the question should pro- 
ceed thus, How is it consistent with the goodness 
and equity of God, to raise such an innocent mys- 
terious person out of the loins of fallen man, as was 
able to remove all the evil and disorder that was 
brought into the fallen nature ? This is the only 
question that is according to the true ground of 
our redemption, and at once disperses all those 
difficulties which are the mere products of human 
invention. 



Would you farther know what blood it is, 
that has this atoning, life-giving quality in it ? It 



56 



is that blood which is to be received in the holy 
sacrament. Would you know why it quickens, 
raises,, and restores the inward man that died in 
paradise ? The answer is,, from Christ himself. 
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood 
dwelleth in me, and I in him., that is, he is born of 
my flesh and blood. Would you know why the 
Apostle saith, That he hath purchased us by his 
blood, Acts xx. 28 : That we have redemption 
through his blood, Ephes. i. 7 : Why he prays the 
God of peace, through the blood of the everlasting 
covenant, to make us perfect in every good work 
to do his will ? It is because the Holy Jesus saith, 
Except we drink his blood, we have no life in us ; 
and therefore the drinking his blood is the same 
thing as receiving a life of heavenly flesh and blood 
from him. 



No. IX. (A.) 

On original Sin, and on Salvation, From 
" The Spirit of Prayer. 31 

Fkom this short, yet plain and true account of this 
matter, we are at once delivered from a load of dif- 
ficulties that have been raised about the fall of man 
and original sin. It has been a great question, 
How could the goodness of God punish so small 
and single an act of disobedience in Adam with 
so great a punishment ? Here the sovereignty of 
God has been appealed to, and has set the matter 



57 



right ; and from this sovereignty, thus asserted,, 
came forth the systems of absolute election aud 
absolute reprobation. But far our comfort it ap- 
pears, that the question here put concerns neither 
God nor man, that it relates not at all to the 
matter, and has no existence but in the brains of 
those that formed it. For the action in which 
Adam's sin consisted, was such an act as in itself 
implied all that miserable change that came upon 
him, and so was not a small or single act of disobe- 
dience, nor had the least punishment of any kind in- 
flicted by God upon it. All that God did on this 
transgression was mere love, compassion, and re- 
lief administered io it. All the sovereignty that 
God here showed,, was a sovereignty of love to the 
fallen creature. So that all the volumes on this 
question may be laid aside, as quite beside the 
point. Another, and the greatest question of all, 
and which divines of all sorts have been ever 
solving, and yet never have solved, is this : How 
can it consist with the goodness of God to impute 
the sin of Adam to ail his posterity ? But here to 
our comfort again, it may be said, that this ques- 
tion is equally a vain fiction with the other, and 
has nothing to do with the procedure of God to- 
wards mankind. For there is no imputation of 
the sin of Adam to his posterity, and so no foun- 
dation for a dispute upon it. How absurd would it 
be to say, that God imputes the nature, or the 
body and soul, of Adam, to his posterity ? for have 
they not the nature of Adam, by a natural birth 
from him, and not by imputation from God ? 
Now this is all the sin that Adam's posterity 
have from him, they have only their flesh and 



5S 



blood, their body and soul from him, by a birth 
from him, and not imputed to them from God. 
Instead therefore of the former question, which is 
quite beside the matter, it should have been asked 
thus : How was it consistent with the good- 
ness of God that Adam could not generate chil- 
dren of a nature and kind quite superior to 
himself? This is the only question that can be 
asked with relation to God, and yet it is a question 
w hose absurdity confutes itself. For the only rea- 
son why sin is found in all the sons of Adam is 
this : it is because Adam, of earthly flesh and blood, 
cannot bring forth an holy angel out of himself, 
but must beget children of the same nature and 
condition with himself. And therefore here again 
it may be trulv said, that all the laborious volumes 
on God s imputing Adam's sin to his posterity, 
ought to be considered as w 7 aste paper. 

But further, as it is thus evident, from the na- 
ture of Adam's transgression, that all his misery 
came from the nature of his own action, and that 
nothing was inflicted upon him from a wrath or 
anger in God at him, so is it still much more so, 
from a consideration of the divine nature. For it is 
a glorious and joyful truth (however suppressed in 
various systems of divinity), that from eternity to 
eternity, no spark of wrath ever was or ever will 
be in the Holy Triune God. If a wrath of God 
was anywhere, it must be everywhere ; if it burnt 
once, it must burn to ail eternity. For every 
thing that is in God himself is boundless, inca- 
pable of any increase or diminution, without be- 
ginning and without end. It is as goo(J sense, as 
consistent with the divine nature, to say, that God^ 



59 



moved by a wrath in or from himself, began the 
creation, as that a wrath in God ever punished any 
part of it. Nature and creature is the only source 
from whence, and the seat in which, wrath, pain, 
and vexation, can dwell. Nor can they ever 
break forth either in nature or creature, but so far 
as either this or that has lost its state in God. 
This is as certain, as that storms and tempests, 
thunder and lightnings, have no existence in hea- 
ven. God, considered in himself, is as infinitely 
separate from all possibility of doing hurt, or 
willing pain to any creature, as he is from a possi- 
bility of suffering pain or hurt from the hand of a 
man. And this, for this plain reason, because he 
is in himself, in his Holy Trinity, nothing else but 
the boundless abyss of all that is good and sweet 
and amiable ; and therefore stands in the utmost 
contrariety to every thing that is not a blessing, in 
an eternal impossibility of willing and intending a 
moment's pain or hurt to any creature. For from 
this unbounded source of goodness and perfection, 
nothing but infinite streams of blessing are perpe- 
tually flowing forth upon all nature and creature, 
in a more incessant plenty than rays of light 
stream from the sun ; and as the sun has but one 
nature, and can give forth nothing but the 
blessings of light, so the Holy Triune God has but 
one nature and intent towards all the creation, 
which is, to pour forth the riches and sweetness of 
his divine perfections upon every thing that is ca- 
pable of them, and according to its capacity to re- 
ceive them. 



60 



No. IX.. (B.) 

On the mysterious Person of the Lord Jesus Christ* 
From <c The Spirit of Prayer." 

Let no one here think to charge me with dis- 
regard to the Holy Jesus, who was born of the 
Virgin Mary, or with setting up an inward Sa- 
viour in opposition to that outward Christ, whose 
history is recorded in the gospel. No : it is with 
the utmost fullness of faith and assurance, that I 
ascribe all our redemption to that blessed and 
mysterious person that was then born of the Virgin 
Mary, and will assert no inward redemption, but 
what wholly proceeds from, said is effected by 
that life-giving Redeemer, who died on the cross 
for our redemption. 

Were I to say that a plant or vegetable must 
have the sun within it, must have the life, light, 
and virtues of the sun incorporated in it, that it 
has no benefit from the sun, till the sun is thus 
inwardly forming, generating, quickening, and 
raising up a life of the sun s virtues in it, would 
this be setting up an inward sun in opposition to 
the outward one ? Could any thing be more ridi- 
culous than such a charge ? For is not all that is 
here said of an inward sun in the vegetable, 
so much said of a power and virtue derived from 
the sun in the firmament ? So, in like manner, all 
that is said of an inward Christ, inwardly formed 



61 



and generated in the root of the soul, is only so 
much said of an inward life, brought forth by the 
power and efficacy of that blessed Christ that 
was born of the Virgin Mary. 



No. IX. (C.) 

On Salvation from a State of Sin. From cc The 
<f Spirit of Prayer" 

Here lies the whole reason of our falling short of 
the salvation of Christ ; it is because we have no 
will to it. 

But you will say, do not all Christians desire to 
have Christ to be their Saviour. Yes : but here 
is the deceit ; all would have Christ to be their Sa- 
viour in the next world, and to help them into 
heaven when they die, by his power and merits 
with God. But this is not willing Christ to be 
thy Saviour ; for his salvation, if it is had, must be 
had in this world: if he saves thee, it must be 
done in this life, by changing and altering all that is 
within thee, by helping thee to a new heart, as he 
helped the blind to see, and the lame to walk, and 
the dumb to speak. For to have salvation from 
Christ, is nothing else but to be made like unto 
him ; it is to have his humility and meekness, his 
mortification and self-denial, his renunciation of 
the spirit, wisdom, and honours of this world, his 
love of God, his desire of doing God's will and 
seeking only his honour. To have these tempers 



62 




formed and begotten in thy heart, is to have salva- 
tion from Christ. But if thou wiliest not to have 
these tempers brought forth in thee, if thy faith 
and desire does not seek and cry to Christ for them, 
in the same reality as the lame asked to walk, and 
the blind to see, then thou must be said to be un- 
willing to have Christ to be thy Saviour. 



No. X. (A.) 

On the Love of Righteousness. From " The 
cc Way to Divine Knowledge." 

Here now you have the test of truth, by which 
you may always know whether it be the spirit of 
God and the love of God that drives you. If 
your zeal is after this pure, free, universal good- 
ness of God, then of a truth the spirit of God 
breatheth in you ; but if you feel not the love of 
this pure, free, universal goodness, and yet think 
that you love God, you deceive yourself: for 
there is no other true love of God, but the loving 
that which God is. 

Wherever the heart is weary of the evil and 
vanity of the earthly life, and looking up to 
God for an heavenly nature, there all are of 
the one true religion, and worshippers of the true 
God, however distant they may be from one 
another, as to time or place ; not he that can best 
speak with the tongues of men and angels, but he 
that most loves God, that is, that most loves the 
goodness of the divine nature, he has most of God 
and the light of God within him. 



63 



I No. X. (B.) 

On the Writings of Jacob Behmen. From 
" The Way to Divine Knowledge." 

Jacob Behmen may be considered, 1st, As a 
teacher of the true ground of the Christian reli- 
gion ; 2d, As a discoverer of the false Anti -chris- 
tian Church, from its first rise in Cain through 
every age of the world, to its present state in all 
and every sect of the present divided Christendom ; 
3d, As a guide to the truth of all the mysteries of 
the kingdom of God. In these three respects, 
which contain all that any one can possibly want 
to know or learn from any teacher, he is the 
strongest, the plainest, the most open, intelligible, 
awakening, convincing writer, that ever was. As 
to all these three matters, he speaks to every one, 
as himself saith, in the sound of a trumpet : and 
here to pretend to be an explainer of him, or make 
him fitter for our apprehension, in these great 
matters, is as vain, as if a man should pipe through 
a straw to make the sound of a trumpet better 
heard by us. 

There are two sorts of people to whom he for- 
bids the use of his books, as incapable of any bene- 
fit from them, and who will rather receive hurt 
than any good from them. The first sort he 
shows in these words : — " Loving reader, if thou 
e 6 lovest the vanity of the flesh still, and art not in 
ec earnest purpose on the way to the new birth, 



64 



ce intending to be a new man, then leave the above- 
' c written words in these prayers unnamed, or else 
cc they will turn to a judgment of God in thee." 
Again, cc Reader, I admonish you sincerely, if you 
" be not in the way of the prodigal or lost son 
(C returning to his father again, that you leave my 
ct book, and read it not ; it will do you harm. 
ec But if you will* not take warning, I will be 
cc guiltless; blame nobody but yourself." 



No. XI. 

On the Will of Love. From fC The Spirit of 
" Love. 1 ' 

The spirit of love has this original ; God, as con- 
sidered in himself, in his holy being, before any 
thing is brought forth by him or out of him, is 
only an eternal will to all goodness. This is the 
one eternal immutable God, that from eternity to 
eternity changes not, that can be neither more nor 
less, nor any thing else, but an eternal will to all 
the goodness that is in himself and can come 
from him. The creation of ever so many worlds 
or systems of creatures adds nothing to, nor 
takes any thing from, this immutable God : he al- 
ways was, and always will be, the same immutable 
will to all goodness. So that as certainly as he is 
the Creator, so certainly he is the blesser of every 
thing created, and can give nothing but blessings, 
goodness, and happiness from himself; because he 



65 



has in himself nothing else to give. It is much 
more possible for the sun to give forth darkness, 
than for God to do, or be, or give forth any thing 
but blessing and goodness. Now this is the 
ground and original of the spirit of love in the 
creature : it is and must be a will to all goodness : 
and you have not the spirit of love till you have 
this will to all goodness, at all times, and on all oc- 
casions. 

Oh ! Sir, would you know the blessing of all 
blessings : it is this God of love dwelling in your 
soul, and killing every root of bitterness, which is 
the pain and torment of every earthly selfish love. 
For all wants are satisfied, all disorders of nature 
are removed, no life is any longer a burden, every 
day is a day of peace, every thing you meet be- 
comes a help to you, because every thing you see 
or do is all done in the sweet gentle element of 
love. For as love has no by-ends, wills nothing but 
its own increase, so every thing is as oil to its 
flame ; it must have that which it wills, and can- 
not be disappointed, because every thing naturally 
helps it to live in its own way, and to bring forth 
its own work. The spirit of love does not want to 
be rewarded, honoured, or esteemed ; its only de- 
sire is to propagate itself, and become the blessing 
and happiness of every thing that wants it; and 
therefore it meets wrath, and evil, and hatred, and 
opposition, with the same one will, as the light 
meets the darkness., only to overcome it with all 
its blessings. 



F 



66 



No. XII. 

On the right way of embracing Christianity; 
From <f A Confutation of Warburions De- 
" fence of Christianity in the Divine Legation 
" of Moses." 

There are two ways of embracing Christianity ; 
the one is as a sinner, the other as a scholar ; the 
former is the way taught by Christ and his Apostles, 
the latter is the invention of men, fallen from the 
first spirit and truth of the Christian life under the 
power of natural reason and verbal learning— a 
change which has some likeness to that which 
happened to the good light of the heathen world. 
The original philosophers,, who lived what they 
said, were succeeded by a race of sophists, who 
had no wisdom of philosophy, but that of dis- 
easing, disputing, and writing about what the 
philosophers had taught. 

But as no man ever came to Christ, but because 
he was weary and heavy-laden with the burden of 
his own natural disorder, and wanted rest to his 
disturbed soul, so nothing can help man to find 
the necessity of coming to Christ, but that which 
helps him to find and feel a misery of sin and cor- 
ruption, which in some the cares and pleasures of 
this life, and in others the happiness of finding 
themselves wits and polite scholars, never suffered 
them to feel before. 

Our Lord's parable of the Prodigal Son con- 



67 



tains the whole matter between God and fallen 
man ; it relates nothing particular to this or that 
person, but sets forth the strict truth of every 
man's state with regard to his Heavenly Father. 
For every son of Adam has every thing in him 
that is said of that prodigal, he has iost his first 
state and condition, as he did, is wandered as far 
from his Heavenly Father and country, has abused 
and wasted his Father's blessings, and is that very 
poor swineherd, craving husks in aland of famine, 
instead of living in the paradisaical glory of his 
Father 's family ; and of every reader of that parable 
it may be justly said, Thou art the man. And no 
son of Adam, do he what he will> can possibly 
come out of the poverty, shame, and misery of his 
fallen state, till he finds, feels, and confesses from 
the bottom of his heart, all that which the penitent 
prodigal found, felt, and confessed. 



No. XIII. (A.) 

On the Public Worship of God, From ce A Col- 
ec lection of Letters.*' 

Suppose, that in the settled service of the Church, 
certain prayers and petitions, not according to 
truth and righteousness, or suitable to the goodness 
of the evangelical spirit, are read ; as prayers for 
success in unchristian wars, prayers tor the de- 
struction of our Christian brethren, called our ene- 
mies., thanksgivings for the violent slaughter and 



68 



successful killing of mankind ; when these are 
made parts of the Church service, are we, in obe- 
dience to the providence of God suffering' things in 
Church assemblies to come to this pass, to unite 
and bear a part in such Church service ? My 
answer to all this shall be only personal ; that is 
what I would do myself in these supposed cases. 
As to the fore-mentioned supposed prayers, though 
I am present when they are read in the Church, I 
neither make, nor need I make them any more 
my own prayers than I make or need to make all 
the curses in the Psalms to be my own curses, 
when T hear both priest and people reading* them 
in the Church as a part of divine service. Nor is 
there any more hypocrisy or insincerity in one 
case than in the other. 

I join therefore in the public assemblies, not be- 
cause of the purity or perfection of that which is 
done or to be found there, but because of that 
which is meant and intended by them ; they mean 
the holy public worship of God ; they mean the 
edification of Christians ; they are of great use to 
many people ; they keep the world from a total 
forget fulness ef God ; they help the ignorant and 
letterless to such a knowledge of God and the 
Scriptures as they would not have without them. 

Every Church distinction is more or less in the 
corrupt state of every selfish, carnal, self-willed, 
worldly-minded, partial man, and is what it is, and 
acts as it acts, for its own glory, its own interest 
and advancement, by that same spirit which 
keeps the selfish partial man solely attached to his 
own will, his own wisdom, self-regard, and self- 
seeking. And all that is wanting to be removed 



69 



from every Church or Christian society, in order 
to its being a part of the Hea venly Jerusalem, is that 
which may be called its own human will, carnal 
wisdom, and selr-seeking spirit ; which is all to be 
given up by turning the eves and hearts of all its 
members to an inward adoration, and total de- 
pendence upon the supernatural, invisible, omni- 
present God of ail spirits ; to the inward teach- 
ings of Christ, as the power, the wisdom, and the 
light of God working within them every good, 
and Messing, and purity, which they can ever re- 
ceive either on earth or in heaven. 

Under this light I am neither protestant nor 
papist, according to the common acceptation of 
the words. I cannot consider myself as belong- 
ing only to one society of Christians, in separation 
and distinction from all others. It would be as 
hurtful to me, if not more so, than any worldly 
partiality. And therefore, as the defects, corrup- 
tions, and imperfections, which some way or other 
are to be found in all Churches, hinder not my 
communion with that under which my lot is fallen, 
so neither do they hinder my being in full union 
and hearty fellowship with all that is Christian, 
holy, and good, in every other Church division. 

And as I know that God and Christ and holy 
angels stand thus disposed towards all that is 
good in ail men and in all Churches, notwith- 
standing the mixture in them is like that of tares 
growing up with the wheat, so I am not afraid, 
but humbly desirous of living and dying* in this 
disposition towards them, 



70 



No. XIII. (B.) 

On the Divinity of Christ, and on the one Will of 
God. From ci A Collection of Letters." 

Had not Christ been real God as* well as real 
man, he could have made no beginning in the 
work of our salvation ; and had he not ended his 
life in such a sacrifice as he did, he could never 
have said, It is finished. He therefore who de- 
nieth the truth, the certainty, and the absolute ne- 
cessity of these two essential points, is in the 
abomination of Socinianism, and is that very liar 
and antichrist described by St. Johu in his First 
Epistle. 



To have recourse to a supposed wrath or vin- 
dictive justice, in a God incensed towards fallen 
man, in order to confute the Socinian, who de- 
nies the necessity and effects of Christ's death, 
is only opposing one great falsity with another. 

For wrath has no more place in God, than 
love has in the devil. Wrath began with devils, 
hell, and fallen nature, and can have no possible 
existence any where or in any thing, but where 
devils, hell, and fallen nature have their power of 
working. 



A vindictive wrath in God, that will not forgive 
till a satisfaction equal to the offence is made to it, 
sets the goodness of God in a lower state than 
that which has been found in thousands of man- 



71 



kind. The truth of the matter is this : the divi- 
nity of Christ, and his whole process through life 
and death, were absolutely necessary in the nature 
of the thing to raise man out of the death of sin 
into a heavenly birth of life. And the necessity of 
all this is grounded upon the certainty of man's 
fall from a divine into a bestial life of this world. 
The Socinian blasphemy consists in the denial of 
these points, the Deity of Christ and the fall of 
man, and the necessity of Christ's death Our 
scholastic doctors own the fall of man, but know 
or own nothing of the true nature and depth of 
it. They own the truth of Christ's divinity, and 
the necessity of his sufferings they plead for the 
certainty of these things from Scripture words., 
but see not into the ground of them, or in what 
the absolute necessity of them consists. Hence it 
is, that when opposed by Socinian reasoning, they 
are at a loss how to support these great truths, and 
are forced to humanize the matter, and to suppose 
such a vindictive wrath in God as usually breaks 
forth in great princes, when a revolt is made 
against their sovereign authority. 

What a paltry logic to say, God is righteous- 
ness and justice as well as love, and therefore his 
love cannot help or forgive the sinner, till his 
justice or righteous wrath has satisfaction ? 
Every word here is in full ignorance of the things 
spoken of. For what is love in God, but his 
will to all goodness ? What is righteousness in 
God, but his unchangeable love of his own good- 
ness ; his impossibility of loving any thing but it, 
his impossibility of suffering any thing that is un- 
righteous to have any communion with him ) 



72 



What is God's forgiving sinful men ? It is nothing 
else in its whole nature but God's making him 
righteous again. There is no other forgiveness of 
sin hut being made free from it. 

• 

No. XIII. (C) 

On Faith and Trust in the Divine Goodness. 
From cc A Collection of Letters.' 3 

Would jou have done with error, scruple,, and 
delusion ? Consider the Deity to be the greatest 
love, the greatest meekness, the greatest sweet- 
ness, the eternal unchangeable will to be a good 
and blessing to every creature ; and that all the 
misery, darkness, and death of fallen angels and 
fallen men, consist in their having lost their like- 
ness to this divine nature. Consider yourself, and 
all the fallen world, as having nothing to seek or 
wish for, but by the spirit of prayer to draw into 
the life of your soul rays and sparks of this divine, 
meek, loving, tender nature of God. Consider the 
Holy Jesus as the gift of God to your soul, to be- 
gin and finish the birth of God and heaven within 
you, in spite of every inward or outward enemy. 
These three infallible truths, heartily embraced, 
and made the nourishment of your soul, shorten 
and secure the way to heaven, and leave no room 
for error, scruple, or delusion. 



\ 



73 



As for the purification of all human nature, 
either in this world or some after-ages, I fully be- 
lieve it ; and as to that of angels, if it is possible, 
I am glad of it, and also sure enough that it will 
then come to pass. 



No. XIV. 

On the Divine Goodness, and on mutual Election: 
From (C An humble Address to the Clergy " 

Love, goodness, and communication of good, is 
the immutable glory and perfection of the divine 
nature ; and nothing can have union with God, 
but that which partakes of this goodness. The 
love that brought forth the existence of all things, 
changes not through the fall of its creatures, but 
is continually at work, to bring back all fallen na- 
ture and creature to their first state of goodness. 
All that passes for a time between God and his 
fallen creature is but one and the same thing, 
working for one and the same end; and though this 
is called wrath, that called punishment, curse, and 
death, it is all, from the beginning to the end, 
nothing but the work of the first creating love, and 
means nothing else, does nothing else, but those 
works of purifying fire, which must, and alone can 
burn away all that dark evil which separates the 
creature from its first created union with God. 
God's providence, from the fall to the restitution 
of all things, is doing the same thing, as when he 



74 



said to the dark chaos of fallen nature, Let there be 
light. He still says, and will continue saying the 
same thing, till there is no evil of darkness left in 
all that is nature and creature. God creating, 
God illuminating, God sanctifying, God threaten- 
ing and punishing, God forgiving and redeeming, 
is but one and the same essential, immutable, never- 
ceasing working of the divine nature. That in 
God which illuminates and glorifies saints and 
angels in heaven, is that very same working of the 
divine nature which wounds, pains, punishes, and 
purifies sinners upon earth. And (N. B.) every 
number of destroyed sinners, whether thrown by 
Noah's flood or Sodom's brimstone into the ter- 
rible furnace of a life insensible of any thing but 
new forms of raging misery till judgment's day, 
must, through the all-working, all-redeeming 
love of God, which never ceases, come at last to 
know that they had lost and have found again such 
a God of love as this. 



The election, which the systematical doctors 
have taken out of its place, and built into an ab- 
solute irreversible decree of God, has no other na- 
ture, no other effect or power of salvation, but 
that which equally belongs to our faith, hope, 
prayer, love of God, and love of our neighbour ; 
and just so far as these divine virtues are in us, 
just so far we are the elect of God, which means 
nothing else but the beloved of God, and nothing 
makes us the beloved of God, but his own 
first image and likeness rising up again in us. 
Would you plainly know what is meant by being 
elected of God, the same is plainly meant, as when 



75 



the Scripture says, God heareth those only who 
call upon him, or that he can only be found by 
those who seek him, so he only elects those and 
that which elects him. Again, He that honoureth 
me, him will I honour, says God. He that 
loveth me, says Christ, shall be beloved of me and 
my Father. This is the mystery of election (N. B.) 
as it relates to salvation. At divers times and in 
sundry manners, God may have, and has had, his 
chosen vessels for particular offices, messages, and 
appointments ; but as to salvation from our fallen 
state, every son of Adam is his chosen vessel, and 
this as certainly as that every son of Adam has the 
seed of the woman, the incorruptible seed of the 
word, born along with him ; and this is God's 
unchangeable universal election, which chooses or 
wills the salvation of all men. For the ground of 
all union, communion, or love between God and 
the creature, lies wholly in the divine nature. That 
which is divine in man tends towards God, elects 
God; and God only and solely elects his own 
birth, nature, and likeness in man. But seeing his 
own birth, a seed of his own divine nature, is in 
every man, to suppose God by an arbitrary power 
willing and decreeing its eternal happiness in some, 
and willing and decreeing its eternal misery in 
others, is a blasphemous absurdity, and supposes a 
greater injustice in God, than the wickedest crea- 
tures can possibly commit against one another. 

But truth, to the eternal praise and glory of 
God, will eternally say, that his love is as univer- 
sal and unchangeable as his being ; that his mercy 
over all his works can no more cease, than his om- 
nipotence can begin to grow weak. God's mark 
of an universal salvation set upon all mankind, 



76 



was first given in these words, ec The seed of the 
<c woman shall bruise the head of the serpent." 
Therefore, wherever the serpent is, there his head is 
to be bruised. This was God's infallible as- 
surance, or omnipotent promise, that all that died 
in Adam should have its first birth of glory again. 
The eternal Son of God. came into the world, only 
for the sake of this new birth, to give God the 
glory of restoring it to all the dead sons of fallen 
Adam. All the mysteries of this incarnate, 
suffering, dying Son of God, all the price that he 
paid for our redemption, all the washing that we 
have from his all-cleansing blood poured out for 
us, all the life that we receive from eating his 
flesh and drinking his blood, have their infinite 
value, their high glory, and amazing greatness in 
this, because nothing less than these supernatural 
mvsteries of a God-Man could raise that new 
creature out of Adam's death, which could be 
again a living temple and deified habitation of the 
Spirit of God. 



FINIS. 



J. Brettell, Printer, 
Rupert Street, Ilaymarket, Loudon. 



PROPOSITIONS 

RELATING TO 

THE GLORY AND EXTENT 

OF THE 

KINGDOM OF GOD. 



PROPOSITIONS 

RELATING TO 

THE GLORY AND EXTENT 

OF THE 

KINGDOM OF COB, 

UNDER THE 

MEDIATORIAL GOVERNMENT 

OF THE 

LORD JESUS CHRIST; 

WITH 

TESTIMONIES FROM SACRED SCRIPTURE, 

IN SUPPORT OF THE DOCTRINE CONTAINED IN THE 

PROPOSITIONS. 



BY RICHARD TIGHE. 



H Of the increase of his Government there shall be no end." 



Sontion : 

o 

PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD, 
BOOKSELLER TO HER MAJESTY, 190., PICCADILLY. 



1813. 



J. Brettell, Printer, 
Rupert Street, Haymarket, London. 



KIND READER, 



The design of the Author of this 
little Work is to prove that all the acts of God are 
acts of love, and that his judgments., whether exe- 
cuted in this world, or in a future state, are di- 
rected by love, for bringing about the purpose of 
creation, and are the means of turning the hearts 
of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. It 
appears to be certain, that if the Saviour of Men, 
having all power in heaven and earth, rules with a 
rod of iron, the en d of such a mediatorial govern- 
ment must be merciful ; for he is the messenger of 
mercy and of love. If he breaks some in pieces 
like a potter's vessel, it is because means less se- 
vere would not be efficacious in the work of their 
conversion. 

Be assured that the Author has no intention to 
lessen the fear of the Lord, or the dread of his 



6 



judgments,, well knowing that such fear is the 
beginning of wisdom : on the contrary, his pur- 
pose is to remove impediments to the belief that 
the righteous Lord will, in due time, judge every 
man according to his works ; and to prove to the 
inconsiderate lovers of this world, that their hope 
to escape future sufferings is vain, while they ne- 
glect to use their best endeavours to please their 
Lord. To live in friendship with the world is 
to live without any right knowledge of the true 
nature of sin, of the want of a Mediator, or of 
God. 

The sacred Scripture declares that mankind, as 
soon as born, are inclined to do evil : it also de- 
clares that without holiness no man shall see the 
Lord : therefore the will of man must be broken, 
and his nature changed,* before he can be fit to 
appear at the marriage-supper of the Lamb, and 
become a member of that blessed kingdom where 
all worketh and willetli in quiet love. Knowing 
that " the acts of God are acts of love," we are 
sure that vindictive punishment is not to be 
dreaded ; yet severe chastisement, as means of 
purification in a future state, cannot appear un- 

* Repentance, or the word so translated, means change of 
mind. Repentance and reconciliation to God are those Chris- 
tian doctrines which, united, are properly called the Gospel, 
or glad tidings of deliverance from a state of sin. 



1 



suitable to the designs of the Holy Parent of the 
Universe,, who declares that he will condemn to 
the fire those who refuse to comply with the terms 
on which salvation from sin is offered to them in 
this world. 

" If ye love me, keep my commandments, 
and I will give you another comforter/' or ad- 
vocate. 

This little Work is particularly addressed to 
those who, by living carelessly, treasure up to 
themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and of 
the re velation of the righteous judgments of God. 
The Author of it, convinced of the evil nature of 
sin, by which we are separated from God, wishes 
all to think seriously of their last end, and to set a 
just value on the blessings of the Gospel. He 
has endeavoured to represent God to be, as 
truly is, most merciful ; but while he declare 
firm belief that future sufferings will not b^ 
less, he dares not presume to form any c^. v 
ture respecting the limits of their duration. All 
who read the sacred Scriptures with reverence 
and attention, know that those unnatural sinners, 
to whose abominable crimes a stop was put by 
fire from heaven in the days of Abraham, remain 
to this day in trembling expectation of wrath to 
come ; and that some of those who heard the 



8 



gracious words of the Saviour and Deliverer, 
while preaching the glad tidings of salvation from 
a state of sin,, have still greater reason to dread 
his presence as a judge, because they rejected his 
offer of pardon and deliverance. 

Whether future sufferings are supposed to have 
limits, or to be endless, those who profess them- 
selves to be Christians are very unwise, who, for 
the sake of enjoyments like a mess of pottage, 
sell their birthright in regions blessed by the 
presence and love of God, exposing themselves 
to the danger of suffering for ages, or even years, 
as that thoughtless and pitiable sinner suffered, 
whose fever in hell was such that he prayed ear- 
nestly for one drop of water — and he prayed in 
vain ! 

Dear Reader ! This world is not a place of 
rest: but be assured that a life devoted to the 
service cf God is a happy life, compared to that 
of the man who disregards the voice of love, which 
once said by his servant, and ever says, fe Do 
thyself no harm/' 

May the good God unite us by Jesus Christ 
in the blessed regions of peace and love. 

R. T. 

Dec. 1810. 



PROPOSITIONS 



RELATING TO 

THE GLORY AND EXTENT 

OF 

THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



Proposition 1. 

As the sacred Scriptures,, written for our instruc- 
tion, declare that God is love, we are bound to 
believe and acknowledge, that all the acts of God 
are the acts of love : he cannot act contrary to 
that which is essential to his own eternal power 
and Godhead. 

Proposition 2. 

God could not originally design the unhappi- 
ness of auy creature, nor can he ever cease to will 
that which he willed in the beginning : therefore 
the design of God in creation was to make all 
creatures happy ; and what he designed from the 
beginning he w ills eternally. Test. xi. xv. 

Proposition S. 

Such powers were given by the Creator to Na- 
ture, and to creatures formed to live in Nature, 



10 



as it pleased him to bestow : we must not say 
either that God could not, or did not, give to his 
offspring the power of resisting his moral govern- 
ment. 

Proposition 4. 

Every thing which is not God is Nature, the 
free will of the intelligent creature excepted, 
which in its perfect state has power over Nature, 
and is the true offspring of God. 

The intelligent creature, when fallen from his 
first state, became the slave of Nature, over which 
he should have been a ruler. 

Proposition 5. 

With the desire of assuming independence com- 
menced that will which is opposite to the will of 
God. The will of the Creator being the only good 
will, of necessity the will separated from God 
must be productive of moral evil, under the in- 
fluence of Nature. 

Proposition 6. 

Physical evil followed moral evil, as a neces- 
sary consequence of the abuse of the power over 
Nature given to the intelligent creature. 

Proposition 7. 

There is not any being wholly supernatural and 
independent but Gcd, the unchangeable God 
alone* Nature is the theatre of the operation of 



11 



him who spreadeth out the heavens like a cur- 
tain, and clotheth himself with light as with a 
garment. 

Proposition 8. 

Nature, created to manifest the glory of its 
Creator, and not to manifest its own powers or 
properties, became evil when separated from the 
only source of good. That there is none good 
but one, that is God, must for ever remain true. 



The cause of evil is separation. 

There is not anj thing essentially evil. When the 
intelligent creature becomes evil, it is by depart- 
ing from the source of good, and uniting his will 
to Nature in a state of separation from God. Evil 
is therefore incidental, not essential. All things 
come from the will of love. 

Sacred Scripture says, that Cf the creature was 
made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by rea- 
son of him who subjected the same and that 
ce the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in 
pain therefore evil is not essential to Nature,, 
but that from which it laboureth for deliverance, 
by re-union with the source of good. 

Proposition 9. 

Although the will of the intelligent creature 
be free, it is not independent. Its freedom con- 
sists in power to choose light or darkness : if it 
chooses darkness rather than light, its deeds are,, 
and must ever be evil, in consequence of the influ- 
ence of Nature : if it chooses light, its deeds and 
imaginations are governed by that light of which 
the blessed influence constitutes the kingdom of 



12 



Leaven. All finite beings are subject to perpe- 
tual influence: in their perfect state, to the divine 
influence ; in their separated or fallen state, to 
the influence of Nature; of which the essential 
powers are many wills or desires. 

Proposition 10. 

As God in the beginning designed the happi- 
ness of all, so in the redemption of fallen man he 
willed that all should come to the knowledge of 
the way of salvation. The purpose of God can- 
not finally be defeated, nor the opposite will for 
ever contend with its Creator. Test. x. xxx. 1. lix. 



When John pointed out the Messiah,, he ciid 
not say, Behold him that taketh away the sin of the 
faithful and wise,* exclusively, but c< Behold the 
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of 

THE WORLD." 

Proposition 11. 
All the works of God being known to him from 
the foundation of the world, as the Scripture de- 
clares, he foresees that all who hear the word of 
reconciliation will not receive it into their hearts, 
and obey the truth to the salvation of their souls 
from a state of sin in this life. 



We cannot safely attribute any thing to God, 
but that which he makes known of himself. It is 
by sacred Scripture only we know that the Crea- 
tor, from the foundation of the world, saw what 
creation would bring forth. As Scripture does 

* Luke, chap, xii. ver. 42. 



13 



not say that before creation took place, there was 
in the Deity a foreknowledge of those evils which 
have existed, and of those which will hereafter 
exist, we may without danger of offending by 
error conclude, that in the pure mind of God, 
before the manifestation of his power in creation, 
no imagination of evil could arise. What the 
Prophet said of the Lord's vineyard, applicable, 
when first spoken, to the House of Israel may be 
truly applied to the whole creation : fC He looked 
that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought 
forth wild grapes." Isaiah, chap. v. 

It is true that the possibility of evil, in general, 
by opposition to the divine will, could not have 
been unknown ; but no purpose to make that evil 
manifest could have existed in the supernatural 
Deity. 

Proposition 12. 
Jesus Christ, the formed Word, the expressed 
representation of the essence of the Triune God, 
the Mediator, God and Man, splendid effluence of 
God's glory, and Prince of P eace, as the Messen- 
ger of a new covenant, came into the world to 
save or give new life to all men, by the washing 
of regeneration and renewiug of the Holy Ghost : 
to some, while it is called to-day, that is, in this 
state of life ; to others, by means of severe judg- 
ments to be executed on them in a future state of 
existence, ee bruising them with a rod of iron, 
and breaking them in pieces like a potter's ves- 
sel He, as Mediator, executes judgment; 
but not vindictively. 

Test. iv. v. xii. xxi. xxxi. xxxii. Ixxx. 



14 



" If his wrath be kindled, yea but a little, blessed are all 
they that put their trust in him." 

Book of Psalms. 

Proposition 13. 

Vindictive punishment cannot be inflicted by a 
Being whose love and mercy are infinite. 

God will not set bounds to the exercise of his 
own good will towards his creatures. Test. xlv. liv. 

Proposition 14. 

The judgments of God not being vindictive, 
but intended to bring about the increase of the 
moral government of God, are the necessary means 
of changing the hearts of rebellious children. 
Test. xix. 

Proposition 15. 

Fallen men are called children of wrath, and 
they must ever remain such till their nature is so 
changed, that being made temples of the Holy 
Spirit of God, they become children of heavenly 
love. 



To speak of wrath as a quality of the divine 
Mind is to speak evil of God. The wrath of Na- 
ture is indeed his instrument, as fire is, by which 
he is said to consume the wicked. Wrath began 
with sin, or rebellion against God ; but there is 
not any thing which can be said to begin to be as a 
quality in the pure Deity. 



15 



Proposition 16. 

Children of disobedience are not the children 
of God. 

Proposition 17. 

The moral government of God is capable of 
increase ; his natural government, or power over 
Nature,, is such that it cannot be increased : the 
former increases, and shall ever increase without 
limitation ; the latter was, is, and ever shall be 
almighty. 

Proposition 18. 

When the Merciful Redeemer comes with di- 
vine power to increase torment, no doubt such 
torment must be designed to be the means of ef- 
fecting the reformation of evil hearts and change 
of evil natures. Test. lxxi. lxxii. Ixxxii, 

" Art thou come to torment us before the time I" said 
the evil spirit. 

Proposition 19. 

Physical evil, the immediate consequence of 
moral evil according to the law of the Creator, 
is at once the punishment of crimes, and the 
means of the reformation of the criminal. 

The divine power is continually exercised over 
fallen Nature, so as to effect the original good 
designs of our Heavenly Father, who wills that 
all things should be finally subdued by the Messen- 
ger of his love. Storm and tempest fulfil hi* 
word. 



16 



Proposition 20. 

Judgment, or condemnation,, means the same as 
rebuke for sin. All persons who turn their hearts 
to God in this world are rebuked for, or convinced 
of sin, and made sensible of their unhappy state 
while alienated from God ; and therefore sacred 
Scripture declares that judgment begins at the 
House of God. Test, lxxvii. lxxx. 

Proposition 21. 

Those of the Household of Faith are called 
elect or chosen ; they first and especially benefit 
by the sufferings and resurrection of Christ. 
Test. Ixxii. 

Proposition 22. 

If men sincerely believed in the severity of the 
judgments of God to be executed in a future state 
as the means of their conversion, they would now 
take pains to avoid the impending storm, called 
the wrath of the Lamb. They would call on 
God, while near, to pardon their past sins and 
heal their infirmities : they would earnestly pray 
to him who came into the world to seek and save 
that which was lost, by delivering them from a 

STATE OF SIN, TO RECONCILE THEM TO GOD. 

Luke, chap. i. ver. 68 to ver. 75. 

Proposition 23. 

We are bound to believe that the sufferings of 
Christ were necessary to the deliverance of man- 
kind from the slavery of sin, or to their salvation 



17 



from sin : sacred Scripture says,, offences were 
necessary to bring about the merciful designs of 
God in the redemption of the world : therefore 
the death on the cross was necessary : but as 
sacred Scripture does not clearly say why such 
sufferings of mind and body were unavoidable, 
as the means of our deliverance, we may conclude 
that it is not given to us to understand the whole 
of that mystery, which Angels desire to look into. 
It is enough to believe that by his stripes we may 
be healed. 

Proposition 24. 

Sacred Scripture says that ec it hath not enter- 
ed into the heart of man to conceive that which 
God hath prepared for them that love him/' Per- 
haps it might with equal truth be said, that it hath 
not yet entered into the heart of man to conceive 
that which Christ, the Saviour and Deliverer, 
suffered for our benefit on the cross. His victory 
over the powers of death and hell was not ob- 
tained without such an inward contest as we have 
not faculties to imagine. 



Although sacred Scripture does not fully ex- 
plain why the sufferings of Christ were necessary, 
leaving us to believe with pious confidence that 
the acts of God are acts of love ; it is declared 
by an Apostle, that by sufferings our Lord Jesus 
Christ learned obedience; or that by them his 
obedience in the most trying circumstances was 

B 



IS 



proved, or made perfect. His victory over the 
world was proved by trial in the wilderness, and 
who can say that such proof was not necessary ? 
There is not any thing to be found in sacred 
Scripture which has been recorded in vain, but 
all for our instruction. 

" It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats 
should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into 
the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wonldest not, 
but a body hast thou prepared me : In burnt- offerings and 
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lq, 
I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do 
thy will, God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offer- 
ing, and burnt-offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldest 
not, neither hadst pleasure therein (which are offered by the 
law) : Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. 
He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By 
the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the 
body of Jesus Christ once for all." Epist. to Heb. chap. x. 

Proposition 25. 

If sufferings were necessary to prove the obe- 
dience of Christ, how much more necessary may 
we suppose them to be for poor degenerate men, 
to soften and prepare their hardened hearts for 
reception of the influence of the Holy Spirit, 
without which influence we labour in vain to please 
God. 



In order to reconcile penitent or converted 
men to their sufferings and temptations, an 
Apostle states that our high priest Jesus Christ 
was ee in all points tempted like as we are, yet 



19 



without sin and a little further on says,, that 
" by sufferings he learned obedience, and was 
made perfect." Heb. chap. iv. and chap. v. 

Proposition 26. 

The sufferings of Christ were pleasing to God, 
because they were the necessary means of deliver- 
ing mankind from slavery. 

" Whoso committeth sin is the slave of sin." 

(e If the son make you free, ye shall be free in- 
deed/' 



With sufferings not productive of benefit to the 
nature of man, God could not be pleased. 

The sufferings of Christ, being unavoidable 
as the means of delivering mankind from the 
slavery of sin, are figuratively called the price of 
our redemption. 

The natural or human will resigned itself up to 
the divine will in Christ on the cross. So must 
the will in all men become dead, and submit to 
the government of the divine will by the sanctify- 
ing power of the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

When the Christian man, by dying to his own 
will, becomes obedient to the will of his Heavenly 
Father, he is said to offer himself as a sacrifice 
well pleasing to God,* which expression all must 
acknowledge to be figurative. 

With reference to a man's dving to his own will, 

* Epist. to the Rom. chap. xii. 



20 



St. Paul says, ec If planted with him in the like- 
ness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness 
of his resurrection.* 

Proposition 27. 

The nature of man being, since the fall of our 
first parents, separated from God, the divine 
power in the person of a Mediator was necessary 
to re-unite the human nature to the Creator. Je- 
sus Christ is the medium of union, and as such 
called the atonement and the propitiation for our 
sins ; he is therefore the only power by which we 
can be reconciled to God. 



Propitiation means a drawing nigh to, or the 

means of drawing nigh to. 

Atonement means reconciliation ; also concord 
or agreement. 

Propitio, from prope and itum. 
Atonement, from at one. 

St. Stephen says, Mcses strove to set them at one; and 
by Moses it is said that he would endeavour to make atone- 
ment for the people, by praying to God to be reconciled to 
them. Exod. chap, xxxii. ver. 30. The original Greek word 
translated atonement signifies reconciliation ; and the origi- 
nal Hebrew word a covering. See Gen. chap. yi. ver. 14. 

Proposition 28. 
God reconciles the world to himself by taking 
away their sins., by healing all their infirmities. 



* Epist. to the Rom. ch. yi. 



21 



Sacred Scripture does not say that God was in 
Christ reconciling himself, but reconciling the 
world to himself. 

Proposition 29. 

As faith in the power of Christ is the only 
means by which man can be delivered from evil_, 
moral and physical., to him every knee must bow 
and every tongue confess : The hearts of all 
must remain hardened., as the hearts of those who 
demanded the death of the Saviour and Deliverer, 
till they shall say, ee Blessed is he that cometh in 
the name of the Lord/' Test. xl. liii. 

Proposition 30, 

Sacrifices,, from the days of Abel, were types, 
and types only, of the true means of propitiation, 
or of drawing nigh unto God : they were the an- 
cient superstructure of religion ; and so appoint- 
ed to be as emblematical representations of the 
death of Christ, the true means of reconciliation. 

Superstructure, from super and struo. 
Superstition, from super and sto. 

Proposition 31. 

Slain beasts, as offerings, were not only types of 
Christ, but of the death due to the natural man 
after the fail ; shewing that corrupt flesh and 
blood, not being fit to inherit the kingdom of 
God, was devoted to the fire of God's judg- 
ment. 



22 



The will of the natural man,, or will of the 
flesh, must be sacrificed before man can be sanc- 
tified by the will of Christ. 

Proposition 32. 

When sacrifices were looked on as the real 
means of reconciliation, and supposed to purchase 
the favour of God, according- to their value, they 
were by the Jewish Prophets declared to be abo- 
minable. To sacrifice then became an act of su- 
perstition. 



The sacrificing of beasts, with the superstitious 
view of appeasing an angry God, became general 
amongst the heathen, and still continues general 
amongst savages. A great part of the world 
long practised that which had been indeed ordain- 
ed as a religious rite, but was by corrupt men, 
while ignorant of its true meaning, made the 
foundation of impious notions of the Almighty. 
False views of the means of reconciliation to 
God must fill the minds of mankind at all times 
with unworthy views of the object of their ado- 
ration. 

Proposition 33. 

Christ is figuratively called a sacrifice, and our 
Passover, fie is the great antitype of all sacri- 
fices : his office is not to purchase the favour of 
the Almighty, but to save sinners from sin. God 
gave him as a Saviour and Deliverer, because 



23 



he loved the world both before and after the 

fen. 

Parental love requires no valuable consideration 
to move it to pity and forgiveness.* 



All authorised rites of religion are symbolical, 
and have been ever so from the beginning of the 
world. The Passover represented the means of 
reconciliation to God, Jesus Christ, whose body 
or nature was to become the food of our souls; 
and therefore the Passover was to be eaten by each 
member of the Church, and each tabernacle was 
to be marked with blood ; this act shewing that 
no man could be saved from judgment but by the 
life of Christ. The ceremonial law with its sacri- 
fices, being superseded on the hour when Christ 
suffered, a new symbol of reconciliation was in- 
stituted, and bread and wine from thenceforth 
have represented that body and blood by which 
alone we can be made fit for the kingdom of hea- 
ven. 

" I am the Way and the Truth and the Life ; no man 
cometh unto the Father but by me." John, chap. xiv. 

Christ's Nature is the Wedding Garment. 

Proposition 34. 

The superstition of the modern Christian world 
consists in ascribing to Christ's death on the cross, 
that which the ancient world ascribed to the 



* Luke xv. Parable of the Prodigal Son. 



24 



blood of bulls and goats. Some now consider his 
death as purchasing for us the favour of the 
Almighty ; some call his death the necessary 
means of appeasing the wrath of the Creator, 
though he himself, God, moved by pity, became 
the Saviour of the world in his beloved Son. It is 
said by others that justice required the death of cri- 
minals, EVEN THEIR ETERNAL TORMENTS \ and 

that justice was satisfied by the sufferings of the 
innocent as a substitute for the guilty : and by 
others it is asserted that sacrifice was the appointed 
means of reconciling G >d to his fallen creatures, 
and that Christ was an offering similar to. but more 
valuable than that of a slain beast. 

All such views of reconciliation are erroneous. 

Proposition 35. 
If man could have been saved from a state of 
sin, i. e. from a state of present and future misery 
by laws or outward instruction, Christ would not 
have died. Test. lvii. lviii. 

Proposition 36. 

Faith is not a substitute for obedience, but is the 
means of doing the will of God. 

Children of God are sanctified by the will of 
Christ. See Heb. chap. x. 

Proposition 37. 

The acts of God are the acts of love (Prop. 1.) : 
as truly so when he raises the whirlwind and di- 
rects the storm ; when he rains fire from heaven 
to destroy wicked men, or sends water to over- 
whelm the earth filled with violence, as when he 



25 



feeds a pari of mankind with manna, and gives 
them water out of a rock. 

Proposition 38. 

The properties of Nature separated from God, 
having been made manifest bj abuse of the power 
of the intelligent creature, contrary to the will of 
the Creator, good and evil are now employed by 
infinite wisdom to produce universal happiness. 
Some men are the voluntary, and some the involun- 
tary instruments of the merciful designs of Provi- 
dence. All must serve creative love ; not only 
Moses, but Pharoali also : one to proclaim to 
the world his power in executing judgment, the 
other to show his kindness to a people intended to 
preserve in the corrupted world the knowledge of 
his long-suffering and mercy. Test. xxix. xxxv. 
xxxvi. xl. 

Proposition 39. 

The goodness of God being equal to his power, 
and both infinite, it appears certain that the time 
must come when both Moses and Pharoah will 
cc praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the 
wonders that he doeth for the children of men ; 
satisfying the empty soul, and filling the hungry 
soul" with his love. Test. vii. xviii. xx. xxiv* 
xxvi. xiiv. xlvi. Ixxviii. 

Moses died in the Lord and was blessed : 
Pharaoh may still suffer in that region where the 
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched ; and 
he may expect yet further increase of torment : 
but all things being possible with God, it appears 



26 



to be our duty to believe that love will finally prove 
stronger than any power with which it can 
contend. 

" In the day of thy power shall tfee people offer thee free- 
will offerings with an holy worship." Book of Psalms. 

Proposition 40. 

Conversion is the beginning of salvation from a 
state of sin. That man is not regenerate who is 
not in the way of purification ; nor is the Holy 
Spirit of God renewed in any man till he is pre- 
pared for it by a death unto sin, of which the sa- 
cred rite of immersion was instituted as a type. 

" K T ew w ine must be put into new bottles/' 
" The pure in heart (and they only) shall see God/' 



Conversion means the turning of the heart to 
God, as the giver of all goodness, and the turning 
from our own evil ways. 

In few words, conversion is desire turned 
towards God. 

Proposition 41. 

To know that ec God is love" greatly facilitates 
conversion. The servant who buried his talent in 
the earth thought his master an hard man : he 
that returned the talents with increase, served with 
diligence, that is, with love. Test. vi. 



It is good to bear in mind and often repeat, as 
David did, that the mercy of God endureth for 
ever. It is the best consolation of the afflicted 



27 



soul. They that know the true name of God to be 
love, will put their trust in him. 

Proposition 42. 
The dread of a wrathful Deity greatly obstructs 
the inward work of conversion to God : such 
dread is sometimes productive of total despair, the 
greatest of the many evils to which fallen Nature is 
subject. 

Proposition 43. 

Of those who secretly suspect that the acts of 
God are not all acts of love, and of those who 
openly deny that they are so, it may be truly said 
that (t they know not what they worship." 

Proposition 44. 

If there be any who say that God withholds 
from some men the power of serving him in 
righteousness and holiness, and at the conclusion of 
this vain and painful life ordains them to eternal 
misery on account of their disobedience, which 
without sufficient power to resist temptations to 
sin, must be unavoidable, they speak evil of our 
Heavenly Father. 

" Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right }" 

Gen. xviii. ver. 25. 

Proposition 45. 
Faith in Christ implies trust in his power, and 
faith with hope saves from sin in this world, and so 
from all its dreadful consequences in that which is 
to come. 

" If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins/* 
Gosp. by St. John, chap. viii. ver. 24, 



28 



Proposition 46. 

To die in sin is to die in danger of condemnation. 
All therefore who die in sin have need of purifica- 
tion. The careless and ungodly , as well as the 
wicked, have reason to dread the severe judgments 
of God in a future state. 

" The wicked shall be turned into hell,* and all the people 
that forget God." 

Proposition 47. 

The elect or chosen of God in this life are not 
numerous. Christ calls those who sincerely love 
him a little flock ; the way in which they walk, a 
narrow way ; and their number is said to be 
limited : but of the multitude finally delivered or 
redeemed by the formed Word., called the Lamb of 
God which taketh away the sin of the world, it is 
said that they are innumerable. Test. xxix. Iv. 
lxix. 

The prospect of such an act of love and power 
does truly give glory to God in the highest. 

Proposition 48. 
The dread of future punishment is not supposed 
by the advocates for the belief of universal restitu- 
tion to be diminished, but rather increased, by the 
belief that such equitable chastisement will not be 
endless ; many, if not all persons, who live care- 
lessly, neglecting the word of reconciliation, and 
forming little else but vain and foolish imaginations 
continually, entertain a fallacious hope in the 
goodness of God, concluding that future sufferings 
are not to be dreaded, because endless torments 

* Hell means darkness, or a region deprived of light. 



29 



seem disproportioned to the offences of weak 
mortals. 

Proposition 49. 

The words used by our Lord., as they are recorded 
in the Gospel by St. Matthew, chap, xviii. ver. 8 ; 
chap. xxv. ver. 41 and 46 ; Gospel by St. Mark, 
chap. iii. ver. 29 ; also similar words in the 
apostolic Epistles three times, and three times in 
the Revelation by St. John, have not such force 
in the original as they have in our English 
translation : the word everlasting, meaning in the 
original, of long duration, or for many ages, is 
not unfrequently used in the Old Testament in 
such a manner that it cannot there be understood 
to mean endless, as it necessarily does when ap- 
plied to the kingdom, power, and glory of God. 

In the Book of Genesis, hills on this perishable 
globe are called everlasting. In the Books of 
Exodus and Numbers, the priesthood in Aaron's 
family is called everlasting. 

See Gen. ch. xlix. ver. 26. Exod. ch. xl. ver. 15. Numb, 
ch. xxv. ver. 13. Lev. ch. xvi. ver. 84. 

Other such examples might be stated. 

Proposition 50. 

As it is by faith alone that the true Christian can 
become victorious in the temptations which, during 
the course of his earthly pilgrimage, he must meet 
with from the influence of the world, the flesh, and 
devil ; so it is by want of faith in the saving- 
power of a divine Mediator that the lovers of plea- 
sure remain in such friendship with the world as 
sacred Scripture declares to be enmity with God. 
The bare belief of future torments,, whether Sup- 



so 



posed to be limited or unlimiled., has little, if any 
effect, till the desire of the heart is turned towards 
God. Such turning brings conviction of the 
odious nature of siir, of the excellence of that 
righteousness which springs from faith, and lastly, 
of future judgment, which must be the certain 
consequence of dying in sin. Stripes, severe 
stripes, in that place where there is no mitigation 
of punishment, must be the portion of all who re- 
fuse to hear the voice of the charmer, and come to 
a merciful Saviour for deliverance from evil : he 
calls them with a promise of rest to all weary souls. 



TESTIMONIES 

FROM 

SACRED SCRIPTURE. 



GENESIS. 

I will bless them that 
bless thee, and curse him 
that curseth thee : and 
in thee shall all families 
of the earth be blessed. 

Chap. 12. 



ii. 

And the Lord said, Shall 
I hide from Abraham that 
thing which I do, seeing 
that Abraham shall surely 
"becpme a great and mighty 



nation, and all the nations 
or the earth shall be bless- 
ed in him ? Chap. 18. 



III. 

In blessing I will bless thee, 
and in multiplying, I will mul- 
tiply thy seed as the stars of 
the heaven, and as the sand 
which is upon the sea-shore ; 
and thy seed shall possess 
the gate of his enemies : and 
in thy seed shall all the na- 
tions of the earth be bless- 
ed ; because thou hast obey- 
ed my voice. Chap. 22, 



31 



BOOK OF PSALMS. 
IV. 

Desire of me, and I 
shall give thee the hea- 
then for thine inheri- 
tance, and the utmost 
parts of the earth for 
thy possession. Thou 
shalt bruise them with 
a rod of iron, and break 
them in pieces like a 
potter's vessel. Ps. S. 



v. 

God is a righteous judge, 
strong and patient ; and God 
is prorokcd every day. If a 

MAN WILL NOT TURN, he will 

whet his sword ; he hath 
bent his bow, and made it 
ready. He hath prepared 
for him the instruments of 
death ; he ordaineth his ar- 
rows against the persecutors. 

Ps. 7. 

VI. 

They that know thy name, 
will put their trust in thee ; 
for, thou, Lord, hast never 
failed them that seek thee. 

Ps. 9. 

VII. 

All the ends of the 
world shall remember 
themselves, and be turn- 
ed unto the Lord ; and 
all the kindreds of the 
Rations shall worship 



before him. For the 
kingdom is the Lord's ; 
and he is the governor 
among the people. All 
such as be fat upon 
earth have eaten and 
worshipped. All they 

THAT GO DOWN INTO THE 
DUST SHALL KNEEL BE- 
FORE him : and no man 
hath quickened his own 
souL Ps. 22. 



VIII. 

His dominion shall be also 
from the one sea to the other ; 
and from the flood unto the 
world's end. They that dwell 
in the wilderness shall kneel 
before him ; his enemies shall 
lick the dust. The kings of 
Tarshish and of the Isles shall 
give presents : the kings of 
Arabia and Saba shall bring 
gifts. All kings shall fall down 
before him; all nations shall 
po him service. For he shall 
deliver the poor when he 
crieth ; the needy also, and 
him that hath no helper. 

Ps. 7% 

IX. 

Blessed be the Lord God* 
even the God of Israel ; which 
only doth wondrous things ; 
and blessed be the name of 
his Majesty for ever ; and all 
the earth shall be filled with 
his Majesty. Amen, Amen. 

a. i Z. 



32 



x. 

All nations whom thou hast 
made, shall come and wor- 
ship thee, O Lord, and shall 
glorify thy Name. For 

THOU ART GfiEAT, AND DOEST 
WONDROUS THINGS: thou ART 

God alone. Ps. 86. 



XI. 

Thou, O Lord God, art 
full of compassion and mer- 
cy ; long-suffering, plenteous 
in goodness and truth. 

Ps. S6. 



XII. 

Let the heavens re- 
joice, and let the earth 
be glad ; let the sea 
make a noise, and all 
that therein is. Let 
the field be joyful, and 
all that is in it : then 
shall all the trees of the 

Wood REJOICE BEFORE 

the lord. For he 
cometh, for he cometh 

to JUDGE THE EARTH ; 
and WITH RIGHTEOUS- 
NESS TO JUDGE THE 

world, and the people 
with his truth. Ps. 96. 



XIII. 

•With righteousness shall 
he judge the world, and the 
people with equity. Ps. 98. 



XIV. 

Great is the Lord, and 
marvellous, worthy to be 
praised ; there is no end of 
his greatness. Ps. 145. 



XV. 

The Lord is gracious and 
merciful, long-suffering, and 
of great goodness. The Lord 
is loving unto every man; 
and his mercy is over all 
his wx>rks. All thy works 
praise thee, O Lord, and 
thy saints give thanks unto 
thee. They shew the glory 
of thy kingdom, and talk 
of thy power. That thy 
power, thy glory, and might- 
iness of thy kingdom, might 
be known unto men. Thy 
kingdom is an everlasting 
kingdom ; and thy dominion 
endureth throughout all ages. 

Ps. 145. 



XVI. 

Thou openest thine hand 
and fillest all things living 
with plenteousness. Ps. 145. 



XVII. 

My mouth shall speak 
the praise of the Lord ; 

and LET ALL FLESH GIVE 

thanks unto his holy 
name for ever and ever. 



XVIII. 

Let every thing that hath 
breath praise the Lord. 

Ps. 150. 



$3 



ISAIAH. 
XIX. 

Every battle of the 
warrior is with confus- 
ed noise and garments 
rolled in blood ; but 
this shall be with burn- 

ITCG AN D FUEL OF FIRE. 

For unto us a Child is 
born^ unto us a Son is 
given : and the govern- 
ment shall be upon his 
shoulder ; and his name 
shall be called Won- 
derful, Counsellor, the 
mighty God, the Ever- 
lasting Fa her, the 
Prince of Peace. Of 

THE INCREASE OF HIS GO- 
VERNMENT AND PEACE 
THERE SHALL BE NO 

end ; upon the throne 
of David, and upon his 
kingdom, to order it, 
and to establish it with 
judgment, and with 
justice, from henceforth, 
even for ever. The zeal 
of the Lord of Hosts will 
perform this. Chap. 9. 



the Lord of Hosts make 
unto all people a feast 
of fat things, a feast 
of wines on the lees, of 
fat things full of mar- 
row, of wines on the 
lees well refined. And 
he will destroy IN 

THIS MOUNTAIN THE 
FACE OF THE COVERING 
CAST OVER ALL PEOPLE, 
AND THE VEIL THAT IS 
SPREAD OVER ALL NA- 
TIONS. He will swallow 
up death in victory ; 
and the Lord God will 

wipe AWAY TEARS FROM 

off all faces ; and the 
rebuke of his people 
shall he take away from 
off all the earth : for 

the LORD HATH SPOKEN 

it. Chap. 25. 



XX. 

In this mountain shall 



xx r. 

The way of the just is up- 
rightness : thou, most up- 
right, dost weigh the path 
of the just. Yea, in the 
way of thy judgments, O 
Lord, have we waited for 
thee i the desire of our soul 
is to thy name, and to the 
remembrance of thee. With 
C 



34 



my soul "have I desired thee 
in the night ; yea, with my 
spirit within me will I seek 
thee early : for when thy 

JUDGMENTS ARE !N THE EARTH, 
THE INHABITANTS OF THE 
WORLD WILL LEARN RIGHTE- 
OUSNESS. Chap. 26. 



XXII. 

Judgment also will I lay to 
the line, and righteousness 
to the plummet; and the 
hail shall sweep away the re- 
fuge of lies, and the waters 
shall overflow the hiding- 
place. And your covenant 

WITH DEATH SHALL BE DISAN- 
NULLED, AND YOUR AGREE- 
MENT WITH HELL SHALL NOT 

stand ; when the overflowing- 
scourge shall pass through, 
then ye shall be trodden 
down by it. Chap. 28. 



XXIII. 

The wilderness and the so- 
litary place shall be glad for 
them ; and the desert shall 
rejoice and blossom as the 
rose. It shall blossom abun- 
dantly, and rejoice even with 
joy and singing ; the glory of 
Lebanon shall be given unto 



it, the excellency of Carmel 
and Sharon, they shall see 
the glory of the Lord, and 
the excellency of our God. 
Strengthen ye the weak 
hands, and confirm the feeble 
knees. Say to them that are 
of a fearful heart, Be strong, 
fear not: behold your God 
will come with vengeance, 
even God with a recompence ; 
he will come and save you. 
Then the eyes of the blind 
shall be opened, and the ears 
of the deaf shall be unstop- 
ped. Then shall the lame 
man leap as an hart, and the 
tongue of the dumb sing; 
for in the wilderness shall 
waters break out, and streams 
in the desert. And the parch- 
ed ground shall become a 
pool, and the thirsty land 
springs of water ; in the ha- 
bitation of dragons, where 
each lay, shall be grass with 
reeds and rushes. And an 
highway shall be there, and 
a way, and it shall be called 
the way of holiness ; the un- 
clean shall not pass over it ; 
but it shall be for those : the 
wayfaring men, though fools, 
shall not err therein. No 
lion shall be there, nor any 
ravenous beast shall go up 
thereon, it shall not be found 
there ; but the redeemed shall 
walk there : And the ran- 
somed of the Lord shall re- 
turn and come to Zion with 
songs and everlasting joy 
upon their heads ; they shall 



35 



obtain joy and gladness, and 
sorrow and sighing shall flee 
away. Chap. 35. 



of the rock sing, let them 
shout from the top of the 
mountains. Let them give 
glory unto the Lord, and de- 
clare his praise in the islands. 

Chap. 42. 



XXIV. 

Every valley shall be 
exalted, and every 
mountain and hill shall 
be made low ; and the 

CROOKED SHALL BE 
MADE STRAIGHT, and 

the rough places plain : 
And the glory of the 
Lord shall be revealed, 
and all flesh shall see 
it together : for the 
mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it. Chap. 40. 



XXV. 

Sing unto the Lord a new 
song, and his praise from the 
end of the earth, ye that go 
down to the sea, and all that 
is therein ; the isles, and the 
inhabitants thereof. Let the 
wilderness and the cities 
thereof lift up their voice, 
the villages that Kedar doth 
inhabit j let the inhabitants 



XXVI. 

Look unto me, and 
be ye saved, all the 
ends of the earth ; 
for I am God, and there 
is none else. I have 
sworn by myself, the 
word is gone out of my 
mouth in righteousness, 
and shall not return : 
That unto me every 
knee shall bow, every 
tongue shall swear. 

Chap. 45. 



XXVII. 

And he said it is a light 
thing that thou shouidest be 
my servant to raise up the 
tribes of Jacob, and to re- 
store the preserved of Israel. 
I will also give thee for a 
light to the Gentiles, thai. 



36 



thou mayest be my salva- 
tion UNTO THE END OF THE 

earth. Chap. 49. 



XXVIII. 

He shall see of th e 
travail of his soul and 

SHALL BE SATISFIED*. 

by his knowledge shall 
my righteous servant 
justify many ; for he 
shall bear their iniqui- 
ties. Chap. 53. 



XXIX. 

As the rain cometh down, 
and the snow from heaven, 
and returneth not thither, 
but watereth the earth, and 
maketh it bring forth and 
bud, that it may give seed to 
the sower, and bread to the 
eater : So shall my word be 
that goeth forth out of my 
mouth; it shall not return 
unto me void, but it shall 

ACCOMPLISH THAT WHICH I 

please, and it shall proper 
in the thing whereto I send 
it. Chap. 55. 



XXX. 

I WILL NOT CONTEND FOR 

ever, neither will I be al- 



ways wroth; for the spirit 
should fail before me, and 
the souls which I have made. 

Chap. 57. 



XXXI. 

He saw that there was no 
man, and wondered that 
there was no intercessor; 
therefore his arm brought 
salvation unto him, and his 
righteousness it sustained 
him. For he put on right- 
eousness as a breast- plate, 
and an helmet of salvation 
upon his head ; and he put 
on the garments of vengeance 
for clothing, and was clad 
with zeal as a cloak. Ac- 
cording TO THEIR DEEDS, AC- 
CORDINGLY HE WILL REPAY, 
FURY TO HIS ADVERSARIES, RE- 
COM FENCE TO HIS ENEMIES ; 

to the islands he will repay 
recompence. So shall they 

FEAR THE NAME OF THE LORD 

from the west, and his glory 
from the rising of the sun. 
When the enemy shall come 
in like a flood, the spirit of 
the Lord shall lift up a stan- 
dard against him. Chap. 59. 



XXXII. 

Behold, the Lord will come 
with fire, and with his cha- 
riots like a whirlwind, to ren- 
der his anger with fury, and 
his rebuke with flames of 



37 



fire. For by fire and by 

HIS SWORD WILL THE LORD 
PLEAD WITH ALL FLESH ; and 

the slain of the Lord shall be 
many. Chap. 66. 



O grave, I will be thy de- 
struction : repentance shall 
be hid from mine eyes. 

Chap. 13. 



XXXIII. 

I know their works 
and their thoughts ; it 
shall come,, that I will 
gather all nations and 
tongues; and they 
shall come and see my 
glory. 



DANIEL. 
XXXIV. 

The kingdom and domi- 
nion, and the greatness of 
the kingdom under the whole 
heaven, shall be given to the 
people of the Saints of the 
Most High, whose kingdom 
is an everlasting kingdom, 
and all dominions shall serve 
and obey him. Chap. 7. 



HOSEA. 
XXXV. 

I will ransom them from 
the power of the grave ; I 
will redeem them from death ; 
O death, I will be thy plagues. 



OBADIAH. 
XXXVI. 

And Saviours shall come 
up on Mount Zion to judge 
the mount of esau ; and the 
kingdom shall be the Lord's. 

Ver. 21. 



MIC A H. 
XXXVII. 

And many nations shall 
come, and say, Come, let us 
go up to the mountain of the 
Lord, and to the house of the 
God of Jacob ; and he will 
teach us of his ways, and we 
will walk in his paths; for 
the law shall go forth of 
Zion, and the word of the 
Lord from Jerusalem. And 
he shall judge among many 
people, and rebuke strong 
nations afar off; and they 
shall beat their swords into 
ploughshares, and their spears 
into pruning hooks; nation 
shall not lift up a sword 
against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more. 

Chap. 4, 



38 



ZECHARIAII. 
XXXVIII. 

And the Lord shall be 

KING OVER ALL THE EARTH j 

in that day shall there be 
one Lord, and his name one. 
Chap. U. 



ST. MATTHEW. 
XXXIX. 

The Son of Man shall send 
forth his angels, and they 
shail gather out of his king- 
dom all things that offend, 
and them which do iniquity. 

Chap. 13. 



XL. 

For I say unto you, Ye 
shall not see me henceforth 
till ye shall say, blessed is 

HE THaT CiOIETH IN THE 
NAME OF THE LORD. Chap. 23. 



XLJL 

When the Son of Man 
shall come in his glory, and 
all the holy angeis with him, 
then shall he sit upon the 
throne of his glory : and be- 
fore him shall be gathered 
all nations; and he shall se- 
parate them one from ano- 



ther, as a shepherd divideth 
his sheep from the goats. 

Chap. 25. 

To execute judgment on the 

rebellious. 



ST. MARK. 
XLII, 

Jesus looking upon 
them saith., With men it 
is impossible, but not 
with God : for with God 
all things are possible. 

Chap. 10. 



XL1II; 

The Son of Man came not 
to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give his life 
a ransom for many. 

Chap. 10. 



ST. LURE. 
XLIV. 

The angel said unto 
them, Fear not : for, 
behold, I bring you good 
tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to all 
people. For unto you 
is born this day, in the 
city of David, a Saviour, 



39 



which is Christ the Lord. 
Ar«d this shall be a sign 
unto you : ye shall fi ud 
the babe wrapped in 
swaddling clothes, lying 
in a manger. And sud- 
denly there was with the 
angel a multitude of 
the heavenly host prais- 
ing God, and saying, 
Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth 
peace, good will to- 
ward men. Chap. 2. 



XLV. 

The Son of Man is not come 
to destroy men's lives, but to 
save them. Chap. 9. 



XLV I. 

He said unto them, 
When ye pray, say, Our 
Father which art in hea- 
ven, hallowed be thy 
name, Thy kingdom 
come, Thy will be done, 

AS IN HEAVEN, SO IN 

earth. Chap 11. 



XL VII, 
Behold your house is left 
i«nto you desolate : and verily 



I say unto you, ye shall not 
see me, until the time come 

WHEN YE SHALL SAY, BLESSED 
IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE 
NAME OF THE LORD. 

Chap. 13, 



■. 

XLV1II. 

The Son of Man is 
come to seek and to 
save that which is lost. 

Chap. 19. 



XLIX. 

I appoint unto you a king- 
dom, as my Father hath ap- 
pointed unto me : That ye 
may eat and drink at my ta- 
ble in my kingdom, and sit on 
thrones, judging the twelve 
tribes of Israel, Chap. 22. 



ST. JOHN. 
L. 

God so loved the 
world that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life. 
For God sent not his Son 
into the world to con- 



40 



demn the world; but that 

the WORLD THROUGH HIM 
MIGHT BE SAVED 

Chap. 3. 



LI. 

As the Father raiseth up 
the dead, and quickeneth 
them ; even so the Son quick- 
eneth whom he will. For the 
Father judgeth no man, but 
bath committed all judgment 
unto the Son : That all men 

SHOULD HONOUR THE SON, even 

as they honour the Father. 
He that honoureth not the 
Son honoureth not the Fa- 
ther which hath sent him. 

Chap. 5. 



LII. 

Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, If a man keep my say- 
ing he shall never see death. 

Chap. 8. 



LIII. 

Jesus said unto her, I am 
the resurrection and the life: 
he that beiieveth in me, 

THOUGH HE WERE DEAD, YET 

shall he live: And whoso- 
ever livtth and beiieveth in 
me shall never die. 

Chap. 11. 



LIV. 

I, if I be lifted up 
from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me. 

Chap. 12. 



ACTS. 
LV. 

He shall send Jesus 
Christ, which before 
was preached unto you : 
Whom the heaven must 
receive until the times 

OF &EST1TUTION OF ALL 

things, which God hath 
spoken^by the moutbTdf 
all his holy Prophets 
since the world began. 

Chap. 3. 



LVI. 

This is the stone which 
was set at nought of you 
builders, which is become the 
head of the corner. Neither is 
there salvation in any other: 
for there is none other name 
under heaven given among 
men, whereby we must be 
saved. Chap. 4. 



41 



EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 
LVII. 

Therefore as by the 
offence of one, judg- 
ment came upon all 
men to condemnation : 
even so by the right- 
eousness of one the free 
gift came upon all men 
unto justification of 
life. For as by one man's 
disobedience many were 
made sinners, so by the 
obedience of one shall 
many be made right- 
eous. That as sin hath 
reigned unto death, even 
so might grace reign 
through righteousness 
unto eternal life by Je- 
sus Christ our Lord. 

Chap. 5. 

LVIII. 

I would not, brethren, that 
ye should be ignorant of this 
mystery, lest ye shollu be 

WISE IN YOUR OWN CONCEITS ; 

that blindness in part is hap- 
pened to Israel, until the ful- 
ness of the Gentiles be come 
in. And so ail isiiael shall 
be saved; as it is written, 
There shall come out of Sion 



the deliverer, and shall 
turn away ungodliness from 
Jacob. For this is my cove- 
nant unto them when I shall 
take away their sins. As 
concerning- the Gospel, they 
are enemies for your sakes ; 
but as touching the election, 
they are beloved for the fa- 
thers' sakes. For the gifts 
and calling of God are with- 
out repentance. Chap. 11. 



LIX. 

God hath concluded 
them all in unbelief, 
that he might have 

MERCY Upon ALL. 

Chap. 11. 



LX. 

Of him, and through him, 
and to him, are all things • 
to whom be glory for ever. 
Amen. Chap. 11. 



lxi. 

To this end Christ 
both died, and rose, and 
revived, that he might 
be Lord both of the 
de d and living. But 

WHY DOST THOU JUDGE 
THY BROTHER ? OR WHY 
DOST THOU SET AT 
NOUGHT THY BROTHER ? 

for we shall all stand 



42 



before thejuclgment-scat 
of Christ. For it is 
written, As I live, saith 
the Lord , every knee 

SHALL BOW TO ME, and 
EVERY TONGUE SHALL 
CONFESS TO GOD. 

Chap. 14. 



EP. TO THE CORINTHIANS. 
LXII. 

Do ye not know that the 
saints shall judge the world ? 
and if the world shall be 
judged by you, are ye un- 
worthy to judge the smallest 
matters ? Know ye not that 
we shall judge angels ? how 
much more things that per- 
tain to this life ? Chap. 6. 



LXIII. 

For this cause many are 
weak and sickly among you, 
and many sleep. For if we 
would judge ourselves, we 
should not be judged. But 

WHEN WE ARE JUDGED, WE 
ARE CHASTENED OF THE LORD, 

that we should not be con- 
demned with the world. 

Chap. 11. 



LXIV. 

Since by man came 
death, by man came also 



the resurrection of the 
dead. For as in Adam 
all die, even so in Christ 
shall all be made alive. 
But every man in his 
own order : Christ the 
first fruits ; afterward 
they that are Christ's at 
his coming. Then Com- 
eth the end, when he 
shall have delivered up 
the kingdom to God, 
even the Father ; when 
he shall have put down 
all rule, and all autho- 
rity and power. For he 
must reign till he 

HATH PUT ALL ENEMIES 
UNDER HIS FEET. 

Chap. 15. 



LXV. 

So it is written, the first 
man Adam was made a living 
soul, the last Adam was made 
a quickening spirit. 

Chap. 15. 



LXVI. 

The first man is of the 
earth, earthy; the second 
man is the Lord from heaven. 

Chap. 15. 



43 



2 EP. TO THE CORIN- 
THIANS, 

LXVII. 

He died for all, that they 
which live should not hence- 
forth live unto themselves, but 
unto him which died for 
them, and rose again. 

Chap. 5. 



EPISTLE TO THE EPHE- 
SIANS. 

LXVIII. 

That in the dispensation of 
the fulness of times, he might 
gather together in one all 
things in Christ, both which 
are in heaven, and which are 
on earth ; even in him. 

Chap. 1. 



EPISTLE TO THE PHILIP- 
PIANS. 

LXIX. 

God also hath highly 
exalted him, and given 
him a name which is 
above every name : That 
at the name of Jesus 

EV E R Y KNEE SHOULD 

bow, of things in heaven, 
and things in earth, and 



things under the earth : 
and that every tongue 
should confess that Je- 
sus Christ is Lord, to the 
glory of God the Father. 

Chap. 2, 



EPIS. TO THE COLOSSIANS. 
LXX. 

And having made peace 
through the blood of his cross, 
by him to reconcile all 
things unto himself ; by him> 

I Say, WHETHER THEY BE 
THINGS IN EARTH, OR THINGS 
IN HEAVEN. Chap. 1. 



1 EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 
LXXI. 

Wh o will have all men 
to be saved, and to come 
unto the knowledge of 
the truth. For there 
is one God, and one 
Mediator between God 
and men, the man Christ 
Jesus ; who gave him- 
self A RANSOM FOR ALL, 
TO BE TESTIFIED IN DUE 

time. Chap. 2. 



44 



LXXII. 

Therefore we both 
labour and suffer re- 
proach, because we trust 
in the living Ged, who 
is the Saviour of all 
men, especially of those 
that believe. Chap. 4. 



EPISTLE TO TITUS. 
LXXIII. 

Not by works of righteous- 
ness which we have done, 
but according to his mercy 
he saved us, by the washing 

OF REGENERATION AND RE- 
NEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



Chap. 3. 



EPIS. TO THE HEBREWS. 
LXXIV. 

We see Jesus, who 
was made a little lower 
than the angel s, for 
the suffering of death, 
crowned with glory and 
honour ; that he by the 
grace of God should 
taste death for every 
man. For it became 
kim, for whom are all 



things, and by whom 
are all things, in bring- 
ing many sons unto 
glory, to make the Cap- 
tain of their salvation 
perfect through suf- 
ferings. Chap. 2. 



LXXV. 

Though he were a son, 
yet learned he obedience by 
the things which he suf- 
fered ; and being made per- 
fect, he became the author 
of eternal salvation unto all 
them that obey him. Chap. 5. 



FIRST GENERAL EPISTLE 
OF ST. PETER. 

LXXVI. 

For Christ also hath once 
suffered for sins, the just for 
the unjust, that he might 
bring us to God, being put to 
death in the flesh, but 

QUICKENED BY THE SPIRIT Z 

by which also he went and 
preached unto the spirits in 
prison ; which sometime 
were disobedient, when once 
the long*suffering of God 
waited in the days of Noah, 
while the ark was preparing, 
wherein few, that is, eight 
souls, were saved by water. 

Chap. 3. 



45 



LXXVII. 

The time is come that 

JUDGMENT MUST BEGIN at the 

house of God ; and if it first 
begin at us, what shall the 
end be of them that obey not 
the gospel of God ? And if 
the righteous scarcely be 
saved, where shall the un- 
godly and the sinner appear ? 

Chap. 4. 



GEN. EPISTLE OF ST. 
JOHN. 

LXXVIII. 

He is the propitiation 
for our sins : and not for 
ours only, but also for 
the sins of the whole 
world. Chap. 2. 



REVELATION. 

LXXIX. 

He that overcometh and 
keepeth my works unto the 
end, to him will I give 
power over the nations ; and 
he shall kule them with a 
kod of iron : as the vessels of 
a potter shall they be broken 
to shivers ; even as I received 
©f my Father. Chap. 2. 



LXXX. 

As many as I love, I re- 
buke and chasten ; be zea- 
lous therefore, and repent. 

Chap. 3. 



LXXX I. 
And EVERY CREATURE 

which is in heaven and 
on the earth, and under 
the earth, and such as 
are in the sea, and all 
that are in them, heard 
I saying, Blessing, and 
honour, and glory, and 
power, be unto him that 
sitjeth upon the throne, 
and unto the lamb for 

EVER AND EVER. 

Chap. 5. 



LXXXII. 

The kings of the earth, and 
the great men, and the rich 
men, and the chief captains, 
and the mighty men, and 
every bond- man, and every 
free-man, hid themselves in 
the dens and in the rocks of 
the mountains; and said to 
the mountains and rocks, 
Fall on us, and hide us from 
the face of him that sitteth 
on the throne, and from the 
whath of the lamb ; for the 



46 



great day of his wrath is 
come ; and who shall be able 
to stand ? Chap. 6. 



LXXXIII. 

I saw another angel fly in 
the midst of heaven, having 
the everlasting gospel to 
preach unto them that dwell 
on the earth, and to every 
nation, and kindred, and 
tongue, and people, saying 
with a loud voice, Fear God, 
and give glory to him, for the 



hour of HIS JUDGMENT is 

come ; and worship him that 
made heaven and earth, and 
the sea, and the fountains of 
waters. Chap. 14. 



LXXXIV. 

Who shall not fear thee, 
O Lord, and glorify thy 
name ? for thou only art 
holy ; for all nations shall 
come and worship before 
thee ; for thy judgments are 
made manifest. Chap. 15. 



Are your minds set upon righteousness, O ye con- 
gregations : and do ye judge the thing that is 
right, O ye sons of men ? Yea, ye imagine mischief 
in your heart upon the earth ; and your hands deal 
with wickedness. The ungodly are froward even 
from their mother's womb : as soon as they are 
born, they go astray aud speak lies. They are as 
venomous as the poison of a serpent : even like 
the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears. Which re- 
fuseth to hear the voice of the charmer ; charm he 
never so wisely. Psalm 58. 



God be merciful unto us, andbless us : and show 
us the light of his countenance, and be merciful 
unto us : that thy way may be known upon 
earth ; thy saving health among all nations. Let 
the people praise thee, O God : yea, let all the 



47 



people praise thee. O let the nations rejoice and 
be glad : for thou shalt judge the folk righteously, 
and govern the nations upon earth. Let the peo- 
ple praise thee, O God : yea let all the people 
praise thee. Then shall the earth bring forth her 
increase : and God, even our own God, shall 
give us his blessing. God shall bless us ; and 

ALL THE ENDS OF THE WORLD SHALL FEAR HIM. 

Psalm 67. 



Note on No. xxxvi. 
Esau was a type of the disobedient who sell their inhe- 
ritance in heaven for selfish gratification, as Esau sold his birth- 
right for a mess of pottage : we may therefore suppose that the 
Mount of Esau means the congregation of the wicked, of 
whom Christ the Deliverer is appointed to be the Judge. 
Happy for them to be judged by him who came not to destroy, 
but to save the lives of men. 

Note on No. Ixxxii. 
By sacred Scripture we are in many places informed that 
the final judgment of mankind will be executed by the Sa- 
viour of the world ; also that the mediatorial government will 
be established in righteousness, and by judgment : for which 
reason many texts relating to judgment, condemnation, or 
damnation, have been chosen as testimonies relating to the 
glory and extent of the kingdom of God under the power of 
a Mediator. 

As it appears to be demonstrable that the design in executing 
judgment cannot be vindictive (see Prop, xiii.), we must con- 
clude that the end proposed by the sufferings inflicted in a 
future state on those who have been rebellious in this world, 
is the reformation of their hearts. 

In the Seventh Psalm, the Prophet David says, that if a man 
will not turn, or be converted, by the gracious offers of pardon 
and reconciliation, instruments of death, arrows and the sword, 
are prepared for him. In another Psalm, we are told that the 



48 



meek Lamb of God, the Messenger of glad tidings, and source 
of all good to mankind, shall bruise some with a rod of iron, and 
break them in pieces like a potter's vessel, that by such means 
the reign of his love may be established; and in another place, 
that even those who die in sin and go down into the dust, shall 
finally acknowledge him to be their Lord. 

The Prophet Isaiah says, that when the judgments of God 
are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn right- 
eousness ; and David calls on the whole earth to rejoice, be- 
cause Christ cometh to judge the people with his truth ; as a 
Saviour no doubt : for that is his tr ue character, and as such 
" he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied." 

From these and many other such passages of Scripture, it 
may safely be concluded that a thing so desirable by good 
men as the salvation of all mankind from a state of sin, must 
be willed by their loving Lord and Master; also that what 
he wills must finally come to pass : for " with God all things 
are possible." 

It is to be hoped that no reader of these lines will be of such 
unsound mind as to resolve deliberately to feed on the for- 
bidden fruit of this evil world, with expectation of finding re- 
pentance in hell. 

The writer's purpose is to state with truth what may in- 
crease the love of God and man; of God, by declaring the 
full extent of his long-suffering and goodness ; of man, by 
shewing that all should be looked on equally with the eye of 
benevolence, and not one soul, however disobedient, as likely to 
be wholly rejected by its Creator. 



FINIS. 



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